Make Sure Your Last (Electronic) Wishes Are Carried Out
Wired.com featured a great article on their website today which addresses what happens to an individual's online identity once they pass away. In addition to the interactions we have with people IRL (in real life), many of us have acquaintances, friends, lovers (maybe), and lives that only exist over the expansive network of 0s and 1s that make up the internet. What would happen to those people, relationships, and lives if we were to drop dead tomorrow? Would we be missed? Would people wonder what happened to us? Would our loved ones try to access our email accounts, finding out about embarrassing subscriptions to magazines and website (it was for the articles, really!)? Luckily, a few companies now exist that can make sure you will rest in peace - digitally.
LegacyLocker.com, AssetLock.net, and Deathswitch.com all offer services that will pass on information, wishes, and even the "last word in an argument," to anybody you choose. Marketed as "information insurance" on one of the sites, it certainly makes you think about what secrets or important information that you have would be lost if you were to keel over tomorrow, somehow. Periodic confirmations that you are still alive-and-kicking are required to keep your last wishes from being carried out (some even require daily check-ins). The cost? It depends on what level of services you want to get; for the basic package, it can cost anywhere from $10 a year to $60 for a lifetime. The premium package can cost $30 a year to a one-time payment of $600.
With the proliferation of the internet and so many of our important services and tasks being outsourced from the real world to that of the internet, it does not seem too surprising that services like these exist.
Source: Wired
