What happens to my email accounts, social media accounts, online banking access or personal photos in the cloud when I die?
Digital heritage: Over three quarters of German internet users (76%) do not yet have a conclusive answer to this. 42 percent say they are not aware of the problem, a good quarter (27%) say they have too little information, and around seven percent simply find dealing with their own digital legacy unpleasant. Only one in six (15%) states that they have taken precautions for at least some (8%) or even all (7%) online accounts and, for example, have stored access data with a trusted person. These are the results of a representative survey commissioned by the two largest German email providers WEB.DE and GMX.

Digital heritage is becoming increasingly important.
“Many Internet users are still too careless when it comes to the topic of digital heritage. Today we store more personal data online than ever before. It is therefore particularly important to take care of your digital estate while you are still alive. This is the only way to ensure that personal data such as photos, emails or contract documents end up in the right hands after the owner’s death,” says Jan Oetjen, Managing Director of WEB.DE and GMX.
Desire for clear regulations for emails and banking.
When it comes to digital inheritance, the most important thing to German Internet users is their online banking data (57%), followed by their own emails (40%). Less than a third (27%) want to decide what to do with their own accounts on large online shopping platforms in the event of death. Personal data such as photos, documents or music in online storage (cloud) are only worth a specific inheritance regulation for a good quarter (26%), and only 24 percent want to have access to their own estate on social networks. Only one in twenty (5%) considers account data for video streaming services to be crucial when inheriting, and only two out of 100 respondents want to determine how their data from online games should be handled.
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Digital heritage usually stays in the family.
When selecting beneficiaries, potential testators are rather conservative: When asked who they would give access to their own digital data in the event of death, almost one in two people named their spouse (48%) or close relatives such as children, parents or siblings ( 47%). On the other hand, hardly one in eight (13%) would leave their data to close friends, and more distant relatives (12%) are also more likely to be left out as heirs. One in ten (10%) relies on an appointed notary or estate administrator, and at least 7 percent of those surveyed say they want to keep their access data to themselves and take them to their grave.
Source: Web.de
The study was carried out by the opinion research institute YouGov Deutschland GmbH between October 21st and 23rd, 2019. 2,131 German internet users aged 18 and over were surveyed. The results are weighted and representative of the overall German population.
Related to the topic: Digital legacy – Facebook offers its users options in the event of death. Here you can find out what both the user and their relatives can do.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

