Digital inheritance is the passing down of digital assets to designated (or undesignated) beneficiaries after a person’s death as part of the estate of the deceased. The process includes understanding what digital assets exist and navigating the rights for heirs to access and use those digital assets after a person has died.
Digital media play an increasingly important role in life. The media in which a digital inheritance resides can be fully owned by the deceased or under the control of a proprietary service provider. In contrast with physical assets, digital assets are ephemeral and subject to constant change. There are currently many obstacles to successful digital inheritance processes, as estate laws and privacy laws are still catching up with the way modern life is spent in the digital realm. Issues center around user privacy, intellectual property rights, and the legal liability of online corporations. With the average person having numerous online accounts, digital inheritance has become a complex issue.
Large online service providers are increasingly offering options for users to make decisions on what happens to their data, and who can access it, in the event of their death.
Digital inheritance processes can encourage the preservation of digital content that provides both sentimental value to descendants of the deceased and informational value to society's digital heritage.