The What happens to our photos on Instagram, documents saved in the clouds, WhatsApp conversations, videos on TikTok, emails sent and received or even cryptocurrencies when we die?
In an increasingly digital world, our lives extend beyond analogue, leaving an unprecedented digital footprint.
To respond to the complex legal, psychological and sociological challenges of this new reality, a team of researchers from the University of Minho – Pedro Dias Venâncio, Tiago Branco da Costa, Rossana Cruz, Diana Coutinho and Sónia Moreira – developed the project “Digital Death: personal and patrimonial issues” which later gave way to a book dedicated to the topic (available online and free of charge).
In an interview with News by the MinutePedro Dias, one of the project’s authors, explained why we urgently need to talk about the death and inheritance of our digital footprint, warning that this is a discussion that affects all citizens and not just jurists.
They recently launched the book “Digital Death: personal and patrimonial issues”, how did this idea come about?
The idea for this project came from reading the book ‘Fantasmas Digitais’, by Davide Sisto and the debates that this reading generated among the colleagues who took part in this project. The realization that the transition of our personal, social and professional experience to the digital environment is reflected beyond our lifetime and that we increasingly leave a larger trace on the Internet, which lasts after our death, confronts us with new legal, philosophical, psychological and sociological questions about our relationship with death. This project aimed to promote a multidisciplinary approach, in order to identify and debate the problems that, in each of the digital contexts, arise regarding death. And, therefore, colleagues from other areas of study participated, such as psychology, theology and art.
Is our current law prepared to defend the personality rights of deceased people that may be violated in the digital context?
When we talk about “Digital Death”, what is really at stake? What is our digital footprint?
In this project the expression is used not in the sense of ‘digital exclusion’, which it can also have, but in the sense of the permanence in the digital space of a ‘digital trail’ of deceased people. We are increasingly storing our communications (emails, chats, etc.), social media profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), documents in hosting services (GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc.) and even crypto assets (Bitcoin, etc.) on social service platforms. It is not just a ‘digital footprint’ in the sense of a memory of what we did in the digital environment, it is also a digital estate, in the sense of a set of assets that can also represent an asset value.
When we pass away, this entire digital trail remains on the servers of online service providers (and not just in the memories of our personal computers). What happens and how we deal with this digital trail after our death was the object of study of this project, which culminated in the publication of the book ‘Digital death: Personal and patrimonial issues’.
Briefly, what are the main legal and scientific implications, in this context, in terms of the protection of personal data and personality rights?
When it comes to personality rights, the question is very simple, the answer is difficult: is our current law prepared to defend the personality rights of deceased people that could be violated in the digital context? What if someone uses the image of my parents or my children on social media, without consent, after they have passed away? Can I object? Or if someone offends your right to a good name or your right to privacy by publishing personal or even sensitive information? In the book we lift the veil a little on these issues.
In terms of personal data, although we are still in the field of personality rights, in recent years we have seen some legal developments, as we now have a European regulation on the processing of personal data and we have a national law that also extends the protection of personal data to deceased data subjects. To this extent, the challenge is to understand how this new regime applicable to the processing of personal data of deceased people is compatible with the protection that our Civil Code establishes in relation to the person’s personality beyond their death.
In this context, there are several doubts that assail us: are we facing a succession of personal data? Will heirs be able to access the deceased person’s data as if it were their own data? Can the data subject regulate this matter during his lifetime and choose his informational successors? How can you do it? These and other issues were debated throughout the project and were highlighted in our work.
There is little talk about death. This is an aspect that has not changed from analog to digital. Few prepare for death
What about digital inheritance and digital wills? Who is responsible, for example, for our social media accounts, cryptocurrencies, etc., when we die? Is this information supposed to already be included in the inheritances? What about when death occurs suddenly?
The fate of digital assets after the death of their holder is today a topic that generates an interesting debate, especially given the variety and typology of this type of asset. While some have a clearly patrimonial nature, as is the case of cryptocurrencies, there are other digital assets of a personal nature, such as social media accounts, which follow a different logic, of post-mortem guardianship.
In the case of digital assets with a patrimonial nature, the rules for administration and sharing of inheritance will be followed. In the case of digital assets of an eminently personal nature, and although it may be considered, in this regard, that there is a wide margin of maneuver for the respective holder, it may happen, in the absence of any instructions left by them, that the protection of the digital identity of the deceased, and consequently of their personality after death, belongs to a group of people identified as having legitimacy for this purpose, under the terms of the law. However, regardless of the nature of digital assets, the use of digital succession planning instruments, such as digital wills, appears to be extremely useful in order to anticipate potential constraints associated with the death of the respective owner, which could ultimately lead to the disappearance or inaccessibility of assets with unequivocal patrimonial relevance, in certain cases, and emotional relevance, in others.
In addition to legal problems, what other challenges does “digital death” bring?
The transition from our social experience to the digital is also reflected in our relationship with death. A process of transition of mourning rituals to the digital space is underway, which raises theological, sociological and psychological questions that equally deserve attention in this book.
There is still little talk about “digital death”. Why?
There is little talk about death. This is an aspect that has not changed from analog to digital. Few prepare for death. A question that actually finds some answers in psychology, sociology or even theology. As I mentioned, the book also addresses this topic by authors who are experts in these areas.
It’s not a ‘problem just for jurists’: it’s an issue that will inevitably affect us all
Despite being a book with a scientific and academic basis, they emphasize that it is intended for the general public. What does this work bring to the common citizen?
The book presents a multidisciplinary view on the topic. As I said, it was not written just by jurists and it is not intended just for jurists. The legal regulation of new areas also requires a debate by society about the values it wants to protect. It’s not a ‘problem just for lawyers’: it’s an issue that will inevitably affect us all. It is from the social awareness of conflicts that the desire to legislate is born, and, therefore, we believe it is very important that these topics are debated beyond the borders of law and academia.
Source: www.noticiasaominuto.com.br
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