Google Estate?

ByMike Moffit

Have you ever worried about what’s going to happen to your digital life when you die? I haven’t, but Google has. They have released a new service for Google users that allows you to plan your digital estate called Inactive Account Manager.

Here’s what you do: Set your Google account to be either deleted after three, six, nine or twelve months of inactivity, or have all your data and login information sent to a trusted family member or friend. Data sent to a trusted contact can be set to some or all Google services: Google+, Blogger, Contacts, Google Voice, Circles, Drive, Gmail, Picasa and YouTube.

To set up your digital afterlife, go to your Google account page by clicking your user name, then Account in the top right hand corner. On the main page, click Learn more and go to setup under Inactive Account Manager in Account Management.

Once at the setup screen, you can determine how you would like your account managed. I know that this isn’t particularly technical, but I find it interesting as an example of a place that I’m sure none of us thought we’d be ten years ago.

Here is a link to a more in-depth article:
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2013/04/plan-your-digital-afterlife-with.html

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