Google is now offering a new service that allows users to plan for life after death. The new service is officially called "Inactive Account Manager" and allows a user to set up a virtual will of sorts that gives Google permission to pass your data on to up to 10 people or completely erase your data after you've passed on.
Death is a reality of life and in the digital world it's been long overdue that a service like this exists.
The way the tool works is users can use the Inactive Account Manager to have all data deleted after three, six, nine, or 12 months of inactivity. Users can also select "trusted contacts" that they want to inherit data from certain Google services.
The services include, +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube. Google will warn you if you haven't used your account by sending a text message and email to a secondary email account before it begins to do anything with your information. If you're alive you'll most likely respond, if not Google will carry out your wishes.
Google posted the following statement on its Public Policy Blog regarding planning your digital afterlife:
"Not many of us like thinking about death - especially our own. But making plans for what happens after you're gone is really important for the people you leave behind. So today, we're launching a new feature that makes it easy to tell Google what you want done with your digital assets when you die or can no longer use your account.
The feature is called Inactive Account Manager - not a great name, we know - and you'll find it on your Google Account settings page. You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason."
Some of our most prized possessions are no longer physical and live in the digital world. Whether its pictures of loved ones, videos we've made over the years and posted to YouTube, or special emails you want to save forever can now be handled with the same respect physical assets are treated with. Google is now helping users plan their digital afterlife.
