
How to set your Google account to delete itself after you die - hbcondo714
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/how-to-set-google-to-delete-everything-after-i-die.html
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kowdermeister
I preferred to share it with a few trusted people so they can change my online
profiles to something "permanent" when the inevitable comes.

I also share a preferred playlist for the goodbye ceremony :) Probably will
keep adding perks there.

It's very sad when you see an update for example on LinkedIn saying
"congratulate X for his one year anniversary". No, he's not working anymore,
he's dead.

~~~
nilleo
It's a crappy situation, but if you do ever see a LinkedIn update like that
for a deceased member, they're actually pretty quick at getting the profile
taken down when you contact them about it. Source: did this for a deceased
member in my network shortly after getting an update like that. A human
responded and took action the same day after I reached out.

[https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/2842/deceased-...](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/2842/deceased-
linkedin-member-removing-profile?lang=en)

~~~
lighttower
I still call the voicemail of my deceased family member from time to time to
hear their voice. Can't delete them from my contact list

~~~
sparky_z
I would suggest recording one of those calls. There's no telling how long that
voicemail will remain active.

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symplee
Where's the option for if Google goes under?

Does the highest bidder get all-access? Will a corporate re-structure void any
existing check-box preferences? Will "deleted" information be reincarnated?

~~~
asdfasgasdgasdg
Considering Google's data retention policies are GDPR compliant, things will
be _really_ deleted within a small N number of days from when they're
"deleted." At least for European users, and I doubt they are maintaining
separate policies on this front for other users.

Even in the extremely unlikely event Google was grossly out of compliance, the
successor company would still need to obey the law or risk hefty fines, so it
shouldn't really matter to you.

~~~
jjeaff
I see absolutely no reason they would keep the same policy for regions that
don't require it.

~~~
deadbunny
Because maintaining maintaining multiple codebases is inefficient.

~~~
JensRex
Because making money off your data is their whole business model, they're very
motivated to lose as little of it as possible.

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chme
If the email accounts gets deleted, can somebody else create a new one with
the same address and receive all emails from the deleted account and possible
take over all other accounts? Then I would rather just leave the account open
after I died.

~~~
coldtea
> _can somebody else create a new one with the same address and receive all
> emails from the deleted account and possible take over all other accounts_

Why would you care? You'd be dead...

~~~
mgkimsal
you may have access to services/accounts that affect other family members.

~~~
Razengan
and obviously other people can be affected by the impersonation of someone,
e.g. an impersonator taking advantage of a deceased person's trustworthiness
within a community that is not yet aware of their passing.

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tommoor
I set up this deadman switch a while back to give access to my parents, rather
than delete. Writing the email that would get sent to them in this event was…
very difficult.

~~~
oarsinsync
I did this too, to a friend rather than my parents, as my parents are less
technologically literate, and aren't likely to outlive me or my Google
account.

Fortunately, because it's a friend, the message is largely just memes about
death to provide some levity to the situation.

It isn't something either of us expects to happen any time soon, so it's
easier to be glib about it, and not overthink it.

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dkuebric
Curious how digitally-aware the standard will is at this point. Seems pretty
significant given the massive paper trail, even if not directly monetary.

~~~
kkarakk
> how digitally-aware the standard will is at this point

Wipe my hard drive and delete my browser history if i die is a pretty common
cultural joke so i'm guessing if you're under 40 you'll have a clause for it

~~~
deadbunny
Yup, it's not exactly hard to have a list of important accounts and how to
access them.

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aflag
That's not a very nice way to do it. It only takes a busy month outside of
"the grid" to become inactive. I'd rather have the option to trust a handful
of users which have all report that I'm dead before taking any actions. People
having a bit of trouble after I die is way better than I having to deal with
an inactivated account while living.

~~~
acgh213
The mention of "It only takes a busy month outside of 'the grid' to become
inactive" isn't entirely true. The setup allows you to decide not only the
length of time from 1 month to 18 months, at intervals. What data you share
can be spread across contacts which you select by email and verify by phone.
There isn't a default to send all data to an address, you have to select it.
The individual selection of data that can be filtered has also grown since my
first usage in 2014.

As for "I'd rather have the option to trust a handful of users which have all
report that I'm dead before taking any actions" is a fair point regarding that
Facebook requires a death certificate. Though, this is not the same as the
Inactivity manager, which is what Google is offering. The purpose is to be a
way to allow people to access content on your accounts after a period of time.
It allows a set number of contacts to access your account in a provisioned
way, through a very refined selection set that even breaks down separate
google play stores (books, music, play, and movies.) I also saw selections for
Mail, Photos, and 42 other different data points that can be sent to separate
users.

It is a preemptive step by the account owner to verify their information will
be easily retrieved by a family member or friend.

I would suggest taking a look at the Inactivity manager. It has a more robust
set of features than most inactivity systems, and doesn't just apply to death.
Even in death, it allows a family to collect photos, contact lists, and other
mementos of a persons life.

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diminish
I think death is becoming increasingly costly for human civilization - as all
the processes and big data becomes discontinued due to a trivial natural
reason, just because DNA-based organic life on planet earth evolved so.
Rejuvenation and abolition of death seems to be the only way for cloud
providers to have a sane future.

YC request for startups: Life 2.0

~~~
EliRivers
Abolishing death seems costly.

Given that identity, as defined by all the data associated with a person, is
unaffected by this "death" that the fleshbags who hold these identities seem
to insist upon experiencing, perhaps we can instead simply migrate the
identity to a different fleshbag; the identity lives on.

The processes and data go on, and we don't have to spend a lot abolishing
death. New people can simply be assigned an existing identity and all the
history that goes with it. We'd be foolish to do this without some thought;
for example, we can put on hold identities that are of limited use.

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leowoo91
I'd go for at least 2 years of auto removal, in case for a coma.

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acgh213
This has been around for years and is nothing related to Google's new
automatic removal of certain location data.

This article is informative, but it is nothing new.

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tamrix
Google even wants to know the date of your death! I'm not giving even more
data to Google!

~~~
robjan
Depending on where you live this could be public information anyway. Often
your death must be Gazetted before your will can be executed.

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billsmithaustin
Call me cynical but this just sounds like a hook for their new service, Google
Séance.

~~~
johnnycab
I chuckled at first, but it doesn't seem so far-fetched. This is a story of a
startup founder backed by y-combinator, who posthumously provided inspiration
for a memorial bot[1]

WhatsApp (Android) stores it's backup on Google Drive by default; by using
this data, it is more than possible to create a bot and _resurrect_ someone in
the digital domain.

[1] [https://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-
memo...](https://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-memorial-
roman-mazurenko-bot)

~~~
giggsey
Black Mirror did an episode based on this concept (Be Right Back)

~~~
johnnycab
It is also discussed in the article.

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sofayam
Good feature but the three month window they grant is way too short. Winding
up someone’s affairs after they have died often takes longer. A year would
make more sense.

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icebraining
Assuming Takeout still works on these suspended accounts, it seems reasonable:
just get a full account backup before the three months are up.

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peterwwillis
We have a weird relationship with death in the West. Rather than remember the
dead, we delete them?

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azdacha
I'd note that under GDPR, we'd be "free" to do anything we want with data
belonging to dead people.

(source : I recall that from memory from reading the GDPR document, there are
some website that will source the same intel)

HOWEVER, France and Germany Data Protections law, individuals can give to data
controllers general or specific indications about the retention, erasure, and
communication of their personal data after their decease.

[https://www.gamingtechlaw.com/2018/09/iconsumer-deceased-
per...](https://www.gamingtechlaw.com/2018/09/iconsumer-deceased-persons-gdpr-
data-protection.html)

~~~
azdacha
I bet there are some subtleties in other countries as well !

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noncoml
Do yourself a favor and delete it before to die.

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Simon_says
Why wait?

