Legacy Features for Digital Accounts
Legacy features ensure that your digital accounts are managed in a way that is in line with your wishes after you pass away.
LinkedIn offers 3 options in the event of an account holder’s death:
-
An authorized person can request to close the account
-
An authorized person can request to memorialize the account
-
An unauthorized person can report a member as deceased
There are currently no pre-planning tools that let account holders choose how they would want their accounts handled after death.
If you are an authorized person, LinkedIn will require you to provide legal documentation to prove it such as:
-
A letter of administration issued by a court
-
A Letter of testamentary issued by a court
-
A Letter of representation issued by a court
-
Other court order appointing you an authorized representative for the deceased member’s estate
You’ll also be asked to provide:
-
The member’s full name
-
LinkedIn profile URL
-
Your relationship to the deceased
-
Member’s email address
-
Date of death
-
Copy of the member’s death certificate
If you choose to memorialize someone’s account, the word “In Remembrance” appears under the member’s name.
Apple
Called Apple Digital Legacy
-
Available with iOS 15 update.
-
Offers the option for people to add a “Legacy Contact” to their Apple account.
-
The “Legacy Contact” is able to access the deceased's Apple computer/phone/tablet and iCloud.
-
Apple will provide an expiration date for how long the information is available for.
-
Keychain (stored passwords) and stored credit card information are not accessible for “Legacy Contacts”.
-
Instructions for how to add a legacy contact to a Facebook account can be found here
-
Legacy contacts will be able to access the deceased's account, including messages, friends lists, and the ability to remove or add friends and make other changes to the memorialized account.
-
You must be at least 19 to add a legacy contact.
Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.
Memorialized accounts have the following features:
-
The word Remembering will be shown next to the person's name on their profile.
-
Depending on the privacy settings of the account, friends can share memories on the memorialized timeline.
-
Content the person shared (like photos or posts) stays on Facebook and is visible on Facebook to the audience it was originally shared with.
-
Memorialized profiles don't appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders.
-
No one can log into a memorialized account.
-
Memorialized accounts that don't have a legacy contact can't be changed.
-
Pages with a sole admin whose account was memorialized will be removed from Facebook if they receive a valid memorialization request.
-
Google’s Inactive Account Manager isn’t specifically for when users pass away.
-
Google allows users to set up a process for account deletion or the ability for trusted people to access the account if the user is inactive for a period of time.
-
If someone is fairly active online, they may want to set it to be as short as 3 months, though users can set the interval to be as long as 18 months.
-
Users can select a number of trusted friends who will get access to the data after the period of inactivity is met. Google will text them beforehand and verify their identity before sharing the login.
-
Individuals who access the account after a period of inactivity will have 3 months of access before Google deletes the account.