As of: March 6, 2024, 6:15 p.m
By: Marco Blanco Ucles
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It is often unclear what happens to the online accounts of people who can no longer take care of them themselves.
An early settlement is helpful.
A serious accident, a serious illness or even death – a person's life can change suddenly from one day to the next.
If no precautions have been taken in the event of an emergency, it is unclear to the relatives in many areas what to do next.
This also applies to digital inheritance, i.e. the management of the numerous online accounts that people have today.
In times of Amazon, Spotify and Co.: digital legacy is becoming increasingly important
Facebook, Amazon or Spotify: No matter whether social networks, shopping sites or music platforms.
People have more and more online accounts with more and more different providers.
Keeping an overview is not easy for some owners.
This makes it all the more difficult for relatives when a person is no longer able to use their own account.
That's why the
consumer advice center
has provided some tips so that you don't have any problems with digital estates.
Lots of accounts, lots of passwords, lots to sort out.
The digital estate should therefore be regulated at an early stage.
© Pond5 Images/IMAGO
The most important tip at the beginning: take care of your digital legacy early on.
Unfortunately, accidents or illnesses can affect people of all ages.
The
consumer advice center
advises: “Make an overview of all accounts with user names and passwords.” There are also numerous password managers if you prefer the digital solution.
The
Federal Office for Information Security
recommends the KeePass program, for example.
Trusted person as digital estate administrator
Appoint a trusted person as your authorized representative and digital estate administrator.
To do this, you must specify in a power of attorney that the person should take care of your digital heritage.
Important: You must explicitly mention that the person should take care of it during your lifetime if you are no longer able to do so for any reason.
In the list you must specify in detail what should happen to the different accounts in an emergency, for example whether your photos on social networks should be deleted.
There is also a template from the consumer advice center for the power of attorney.
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In principle, it certainly makes sense to save the lists on a USB stick.
However, it is important not to secure it with a password, otherwise no one will be able to gain access to it afterwards.
An exception, of course, is if you give the password to someone you trust in advance.
Ideally, you should leave the USB stick in a safe or bank safe deposit box.
It is also recommended that you inform other relatives who your trusted person is for the digital estate.
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Practically, more and more providers are offering you the option to determine what should happen to the account after your death.
For example, such default settings can be made at Google, Facebook and Apple.
To do this, you can appoint a person to manage or delete your accounts in an emergency.