Breadth discovery of digital footprint

[gffletch]

Two things on this topic...

1. How does a loved one (or responsible party) discover the breadth of the deceased/incapacitated's digital footprint. Having access to the person's email/phone can help with this discovery. However whether this is desirable is heavily dependent on the relationship of the two parties.
2. Today, "benevolent impersonation" (i.e. access to credentials) is the easiest way to have access to critical communication mechanisms. Outside of "benevolent impersonation" it's unclear how the responsible party would can access to the critical information needed.

[mdes206]

This is such an essential question. We want and need all of our information to be locked down in life, and then there is a moment (death) where it would ideally open like a vault but only to designated people. I've been trying to come up with analogs to this situation. The best I can come up with is that back in the day if you had things of value, you'd go lock them in the safe deposit box and you or your designee could get in - but only when accompanied by a bank employee. It feels like in an ideal world, there's a virtual safe deposit box that holds direct or indirect access to every digital asset of value, and a "bank employee" can unlock it with a key if you or your designee shows up with a matching key (such as when you've been declared dead). Not sure if this makes any sense! I'm sure it's been thought/talked about before.