Guest Post: How Important is my Digital Data
By Nathan Lustig on Dec 13 th, with 0 COMMENT
Note: This is a guest post by Justin Toladro of Life Insurance Finder from Australia
A legacy has been part of human nature since the beginning of time. Old wisdom prescribed ‘planting a tree’ and bearing a son to carry on a legacy, to gain a sense of immortality, and to leave something behind that is sure to outlive us.
Many write books, blogs, and have obtained a strong online presence, which equates to a lengthy and diverse digital legacy.
A digital legacy is quite different than a physical legacy that includes a son, or a tree or any other kind of physical treasure. It is a part of us that contains our innermost thoughts, our political and religious beliefs, our love letters and what makes us who we are. It is something that is not quite tangible, but yet, is accessible.
Yet, to some of our friends and family, this digital legacy, with all of its photographs, mementos, emails and posts, may be an even more satisfying and lasting memory of our lives and how we lived them, to pass on to our children, grandchildren and friends and loved ones.
We live in a digital world that is rapidly replacing the physical word, as far as documentation, and personal data. Everything is emailed, faxed and downloaded, and most of us even pay our bills online, and carry on all of our financial matters there as well.
But what happens to that legacy when we die? Where does it go and what remains of our digital selves after our Digital Death?
Why digital data should be preserved:
When someone dies, most of the digital information that they created and participated in, such as profiles in many of the social network sites, or business identities, stays behind.
Deciding what part of your digital self you’d like to see remain can mean what part of your personal legacy you leave behind. The decision of course, is yours, but what if you die before you make a decision about that digital legacy? What is left of you after your death if there are no instructions in which to guide your legacy?
And what exactly is out there to see that you’d not be particularly proud?
Importance of digital data:
Mark Raby of TG Daily, says “38% of Americans would rather lose their wedding ring than all the files on their computer, and that’s just the beginning of the insights provided by a new study on the importance of digital data.” Although these statistics are sketchy, I mean how many people are going to admit this? The truth is, our computers and data are what most of our lives revolve around. Everything we do, care about, feel and believe are resting somewhere out in cyberspace.
Preserving your digital data:
Raby says that most people do not even back up this critical data. So, a great start would be a back up system to ensure that those critical photos, documents, music and other online information is safe, and will not be lost should you experience a hard drive crash.
Another method many people use is a ‘flash drive’. This is an exterior drive that condenses your information and stores it off the computer should a crash occur, and can act as a guide for family and friends, as well. It can contain sensitive information that can be locked in a safe, or other secure method to be opened upon your death.
Digital Will:
This is one document that will not only benefit you and how you want to leave your digital legacy, whether it remains or is removed after your death, and is also a guideline to how you want your family to see your legacy. Do you want personal information left in email accounts, or social network sites?
This is the place to state your wishes, and also give family and friends access to what you feel is appropriate.
Creating a digital will is not difficult, most times it is just attached to an existing will or living trust.
Start a list and keep it updated:
Making a list of all of your online activities for a month would be a great start to recording and keeping the important digital legacy that is you. Suggestions are to begin by creating a document in a word processing system, which allows links to specific sites.
Adding user ID’s and passwords, as well as what data is there can relieve even the most computer savvy person, when and if something happens to you.
This document should be incorporated into the digital will you’ve created and should be kept with a person you trust, or a legal representative to be given access only to the people you have chosen to give access.
Keeping your online data safe, stored, easily accessible and edited for content will leave a lasting digital legacy for which you can be proud.
