As I have previously discussed, Google has taken a large step towards allowing its subscribers to determine what happens to their digital assets following their death. What has not been discussed is the fact that Google has built several safeguards into the program. The most important consideration that a person needs to make with the Interactive Account Manager is that the dashboard is not only for death event planning. The system will come into effect if the account is inactive for a period of time. In fact, the system was designed to only come into effect when a person’s account has been inactive for a certain period of time. For Google, inactivity means death. This means that the protocol might go into effect if a person decides to travel for a period of time and does not use Google throughout that period of time. Fortunately, “Google will give you a one-month warning before pronouncing you departed and setting the system into action.” Thus, if a person is planning a long journey, it is imperative that the person who is traveling has given Google a way to contact that person.
Furthermore, it is cannot be stressed how important this new feature might be for our posterity. The Internet has almost replaced actual letter writing in the modern age and so this could an excellent way to archive our person history in the modern era. This will also solve a current problem with family members not having access to a loved one’s online assets following their loved one’s death.
See Kashmir Hill, Will You Use Google’s Death Manager To Let Loved Ones Read Your Email When You Die?, Forbes, Apr. 11, 2013.
