Many people are now drafting special portions of their estate plans to incorporate their digital assets. A recent article discusses how Google has now incorporated digital estate planning into its long list of offerings in order to make it easier for users to plan for their digital afterlife.
Google has recently announced its “Inactive Account Manager.” Using the manager, users can determine what will happen to their Google data – information stored on Gmail, Blogger, Google Drive, Google+, Picasa, Google Voice, and YouTube – after their account has been inactive for a specified period of time.
Rather than relying on a friend or family to inform Google of your death, the system allows you to set the length of inactivity after which it will be sprung into action. After this time has passed, Google will send you an email or text message warning that you have been inactive for your specified period of time. If you do not respond to the email, Google will either share your data with up to 10 trusted contacts that you previously indicated, or delete all the data stored in your various Google applications.
