Your Data and Cyber Business After You're Gone 290
Reader Mountain Splash writes "The New York Times has a decent thought-inspiring article questioning what happens to our stored data and who owns the rights to it after we die. I have to admit that, while this dilemma had already crossed my mind many months ago, I've been rather slow to do something about handling it. While considering the same, though, what I did do was start a very detailed list of my many various emailboxes, IM monikers, cyber buddies, and yes, passwords (complete with encrypted hints to be stored separately). I have also already approached my roomie and my sister about following up with that list for me as a last wish if and when the inevitable should occur. Just wondering if everyone else has done the same or similar... Anyone gone so far as to have already filed their information along with their will with their family lawyer?"
well.. (Score:3, Interesting)
-1 STOLEN (Score:2, Interesting)
Not that duping the story says much about the Slashdot editors...
Dupe? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dupe? (Score:3, Funny)
Slashdot editor simulator (Score:5, Funny)
Also seen (Score:3, Informative)
Gloomy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gloomy (Score:5, Funny)
You only look ONE way when crossing the road?
Wait a second (Score:5, Funny)
Chickens. Hordes of disease-ridden road-crossing chickens are on the other side. Just waiting.
No thank you. Life is safer on this side of the road.
Re:Gloomy (Score:3, Insightful)
- Heath Caldwell
Re:Gloomy (Score:2)
Daniel
Re:Gloomy (Score:2)
I think he means that nobody will tell his email buddy that he's dead.
Re:Gloomy (Score:5, Funny)
"Dude...Noodle must just be taking a crap, he's been AFK for 3 rounds"
"No man, I just checked. He is REALLY dead. Too bad he's hosting this server, otherwise I'd just kick him right now."
"Hey- call his wife, and have her change this to a dedicated server...we could use this forever!"
Re:Gloomy (Score:2)
I hereby patent a mechanism for informing people through electronic network means of a common acquaintance's state of deceasedness.
I'll call it... www.e-obit.com
Aw bloody. Taken
A bit off topic (Score:5, Funny)
Pr0n buddies (Score:2)
"Life Scrubbing" Insurance Skit (Score:4, Funny)
Saturday Night Live had a skit commercial on that years ago, featuring Will Farrell I believe. It was an insurance service that, upon your death, would swoop into your home and remove any and all "embarrassing" artifacts before your relatives arrived.
They showed the crew hauling out bongs, rather large marital aids, probably an inflatable goat or two from Farrell's apartment. Then a full cleanup to show that, even in death, you were a "good clean boy".
Actually this sounds like a rather lucrative business potential....
Re:"Life Scrubbing" Insurance Skit (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A bit off topic (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A bit off topic (Score:4, Insightful)
I notice this is moderated funny, but this is actually BANG ON. My housemate died suddenly earlier this year, and his family came for all his things a while later... in the meantime I cleaned all the porn off his desktop and laptop (had to break in as he was running passworded Windows XP) as I knew he had some.... alternative.... tastes that his very Catholic family would not like.
I completely forgot about the approx. 20 CDs that were in his CD wallets alongside loads of feature films - and the family got them.
Luckily the stuff on CDs was really the tamer kind of thing... only a little anecdote, but goes to show how close to the bone the parent comment is.
Re:A bit off topic (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A bit off topic (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, it will encrypt (and I think delete if you want) any files on your computer that you don't want to exist after your death. It's a timer you re-set every week or so. Seems like a good idea - not just for people who don't want porn to stay on their computer, but also if you had anything sensitive on your com
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A bit off topic (Score:2, Funny)
You mean that, even in this day and age, there is still a negative stigma attached to the desire to look at naked people having bondage sex with animals ? Weird.
Re:A bit off topic (Score:2)
Use Attorney for business (and personal financial) (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Use Attorney for business (and personal financi (Score:3, Informative)
This will really do your employer good. Not. It's not like anyone but you can go down to your safe-deposit box and grab all this stuff... They'll have to wait until probate!
Re:Use Attorney for business (and personal financi (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Use Attorney for business (and personal financi (Score:3, Funny)
So you work for the mob?
All my important Data (Score:5, Funny)
Re:All my important Data (Score:3, Funny)
Is that when your body is rendered into artificial dairy creamer?
We need to learn to let go (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe he didn't want anyone reading his personal files? That seems like the most obvious explanation to me.
I think that as a culture, we need to learn how to let go of things. In the past, information was more ephemeral; books would decay or be lost over time. Just because we have the capacity virtually eternal data storage doesn't mean we should.
In a way, I think holding on to every minute detail of someone's life devalues the things of importance they left behind. Do you think they really want to be remembered by their tax returns? Would they have wanted their grandchildren to inherit their file of meeting notes? If someone wants to leave important digital information to posterity, they should put that intent in their will, and (*gasp*) maybe even make a hard copy of it.
Obviously if someone dies suddenly, that may not be an option. But my point is that we, the survivors, need to relearn how to distinguish between valuable data and stuff better left forgotten.
Re:We need to learn to let go (Score:2, Informative)
Re:We need to learn to let go (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe he didn't want anyone reading his personal files? That seems like the most obvious explanation to me.
Or he died unexpectedly, and had made clear at many points that the information on his computer was extremely important to him. You'd honor your brother or uncles wish, right? Same thing here. Code he's worked on, things he valued, information he wanted kept 'alive', as it were.
Someone else mentioned that I could just take the HDD out and put it in another box to recover the files. I could do that
Re:We need to learn to let go (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps your family won't be interested, but historians might.
Tax forms c
Re:We need to learn to let go (Score:3, Informative)
Let me give you an alternative pov. As a historian, it is precisely these things that you devalue that others value. For instance only recently I was researching an incident during th 1856 presidential election, and a university professor in the South (specifics aren't terribly important for my point). This professor left a copy of all his letters, and they were quite extensive to Duke University library upon his death--these letters are personal, to his sisters, wife, children, etc. And they offer an incre
Re:We need to learn to let go (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We need to learn to let go (Score:3, Interesting)
What I should have said was that data is much easier and cheaper to create in the modern era. Paper publishing takes more time and resources, and so there tends to be some minimum threshold for what's important enough to sto
Encrypted hints? (Score:5, Funny)
"Wait, i'll read it out loud!"
"TO UNCOVER ALL MY PASSWORDS LOVE,
LOOK UP INTO THE STARS ABOVE!
THE CHEERING CROWDS GAZE WITH FUN
FROM LOCATION THIRTY ONE!"
"Stars above? What does it mean!"
"I've got it! To the Planetarium! The next clue must be under seat thirty one!"
"Man, i'm so glad Bill died. I'm having the time of my life!"
Re:Encrypted hints? (Score:2)
Re:Encrypted hints? (Score:4, Funny)
> LOOK UP INTO THE STARS ABOVE!
> THE CHEERING CROWDS GAZE WITH FUN
> FROM LOCATION THIRTY ONE!"
>
> "Stars above? What does it mean!"
>
> "I've got it! To the Planetarium! The next clue must be under seat thirty one!"
>
> "Man, i'm so glad Bill died. I'm having the time of my life!"
Problem is, if someone's closed the planetarium or just changed the seating arrangements in the past decade, the game breaks down.
Except for one thing: In the decades of evolution after the extinction of that particular movie genre, we've developed:
1) "Shared-secret" cryptosystems. You don't need all of the key. And even if your clues are chained together, you can make up strings of clues that intersect. (If the Planetarium Clue leads you to the Zoo Clue, you can still find the Zoo Clue if a third Clue also points people to the Zoo.)
2) Geocaching.
3) Widely-known and widely-distributed images that can never be truly "erased" from history, unlike the clue buried under the planetarium.
4) If your estate isn't worth several million dollars, nobody's gonna bother flying halfway across the country for each clue. But by using #3 and only a little bit of geocaching, a little Perl scripting might be worth doing.
BRIM'S EXCLUSIVE QUAKER OATS,
NATALIE PORTMAN POURS SOME GOATS!
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, CYCLES YOU,
ALL YOUR BASE ARE THIRTY-TWO!
"OMFG, if we XOR the ASCII for 'wilfrid', as in the Quaker Oats guy 'Wilfrid Brimley', and we XOR it with 'hotgrit', and XOR *that* with the Goatse Guy's picture, all we need to do is take a CRC-32 of the resulting file and we have the next four bytes of the key! w00t!"
Man, I so have to update my will.
Re:Encrypted hints? (Score:2)
I've considered this very thing (Score:5, Funny)
When I first gave it to her, she immediately ripped it open, not fully comprehending what it was. I had to snatch it out of her hands, exclaiming, "I'm not dead yet!" I sealed it into another envelope and she put it in her drawer, where it has remained untouched to this day (I assume).
The "Hit by a bus" file (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly, we had a server die while the Network Admin was on vacation, and we discovered his was blank. Seems he wants to take all our configuration, login and server data to his grave.
And it STILL hasn't been updated
Re:The "Hit by a bus" file (Score:4, Insightful)
"We have what's called the "Hit by a bus" file where I work. It's supposed to be a set of sealed envelopes to be opened in the event of an emergency."
We have those too, only they're called "internal documentation" and stored in a readily reviewable format in a controlled setting.
"Sadly, we had a server die while the Network Admin was on vacation, and we discovered his was blank. Seems he wants to take all our configuration, login and server data to his grave."
Dude, if your freakin' network config map and other critical info is supposed to be placed in a sealed envelope WITHOUT review, and stuck in a mayonaisse jar like some Amazing Kreskin skit, I'd run far and fast from your employer.
Yep boss, I've got the whole project completed. It's all documented in this sealed manila envelope which you are NOT to open until my death. So, about my bonus review...
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I've considered this very thing (Score:2, Insightful)
Hi, I'm the janitor that works second shift at your company. I looked in that envelope after your manager left it on top of her desk in her unlocked office, and now not only do I have access to everything in the enterprise that you do, but I also have your hints for future password permutations!
THANKS, IDIOT SYSADMIN!
You should have password recovery policies and procedures for anything important, so you dont have to do something retarded like writing do
Re:I've considered this very thing (Score:2)
Company Policy (Score:2, Interesting)
Old data never dies. (Score:2, Funny)
The reality is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nobody cares about your data. They just want your money, which is easy enough to find.
After reading through GiBs of your old mail, they will see that you have a secret swiss bank account with some cash????
Yeah sure...
Don't overestimate your importance in this world.
--
ee
Re:The reality is... (Score:3, Insightful)
Old Movie websites (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a friend commit suicide rather suddenly a few years ago. His site is still up at AOL. I can still read messages he posted and see pictures of him here and there on the net. He left quite a digital legacy.
It's truely intersting, the things we leave behind and we don't realize it.
the question is why? (Score:2)
if you are running a business, it is generally a good idea to run it the way you can walk away on a moment notice: pass it to someone or put it up for sale. You should already have it planned and documented.
If you do not have a business and we are talking about random ideas and some IP (code) developed over years - how much of it is actually useful to other people? Unless you are one of those big thinkers with un
Re:the question is why? (Score:2)
The data that you consider irrelevant may be extremely valuable to someone else. For example, that senior year class photograph your sister sent you from college 20 years ago, may be of little use to you, but to a complete stranger, that might be the last remaining photograph of their mother when she was young.
We encountered this situation in our family. I was telling my mother about the various reunion web
What do I care? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What do I care? (Score:3, Funny)
Dead, and benefitting from another 70 years of copyright on everything you wrote.
In my will, no family lawyer (Score:2, Interesting)
Not much changed... (Score:2, Interesting)
But in my case, I can say that I have made some inroads in both the living world (insurance mods, finance mods, Living Will conversations and the like) and the after I am gone (in this body anyways) world. The largest step that I have taken in the after I am gone world is to comprehend that as of right this moment at least, I have NOTHING that anyone would really want or need to see as far as data or anything "electronic". Really, all I have done is set
notifying cyberfriends (Score:2, Insightful)
Who owns? (Score:3, Insightful)
Think about it this way:
The computer is a container. It holds the information that is put into it; nothing more, nothing less. If I indicate that my bookshelves are going to my younger brother after my death, does that mean the books are too? If I bequeath him my dresser, does he get the clothes as well? I doubt it.
Information property is tricky business. It takes up little (no) physical space, so it's easy to forget. Instead of simply erasing disks or automatically passing along whatever they contain, computers need to be emptied just like the rooms of a house would be. Then everything needs to be sorted through--it doesn't all automatically go to whoever gets the house.
Re:Who owns? (Score:2)
Re:Who owns? (Score:2)
Ah but digital IP can be copied. If you own the rights, you could leave a copy to everyone.
Please someone donate your SO's naked pics to the world! try alt.binaries.pictures.dead.so
Dont Care bout Data but A Legacy Might be Nice (Score:2)
I might consider a bequest to a useful OS tool. Being immortalized in a geek toy would be worth some money I'd be too dead to spend.
ls
My plan... (Score:5, Funny)
Tools not necessary..
Re:My plan... (Score:2)
If I were a porn buddy, I think I would quickly break my promise, forget the porn, and give all of my attention to the lonely wife. :)
Re:My plan... (Score:2)
easy to do for the
Who Cares? (Score:2)
I mean, I'll be fucking dead. I wont give a crap about anything when I'm DEAD.
Sure, it might be a selfish thing to say. But its the truth.
I don't care what happens with my stuff after I'm dead. I'LL BE DEAD.
Re:Who Cares? (Score:2)
Bus theory (Score:2, Interesting)
"If I step off the curb tonight, and get hit by a bus, will anyone know what the hell to do with this?" If the answer is "Fuck, no!" then the aformentioned-ill-fated-coworker needs to write it down.
This story is back from the dead... (Score:2)
Already covered, basically a dupe. I believe this story has risen from the grave.
This leads to the conclusion that eventually, all your data will be reborn in another life and continue on. There's no need to worry what will happen to it.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Err..the inevitable? (Score:3, Funny)
Buddy, believe me when I tell you this, it's not an if question, it's definately a when question.
Bah! I'll live forever anyways! (Score:4, Funny)
live on (Score:3, Funny)
More likely, it will all go to the government because I'll put off creating a will until I'm already dead.
Last will and testament - FSF (Score:2, Interesting)
I have told my relatives about my wishes and the location of my data. I have put passwords in escrow with a close friend.
My last wish (Score:2)
Not to put a fine point on it... (Score:3, Interesting)
I myself have 2030+ posts here, and boiled down, it shows that I was funny, a musician, and angry at how those in power treat those who aren't.
I guess that is about what people will say about me when I'm gone (plus the unavoidable references to my incredible sexual prowess, my stunning good looks, and my amazing plan to save the world with cold fusion).
So, then. Dead people's /. posts?
Next O'Kin . . . (Score:2)
Same goes for your emails and any other electronic IP. With all the griping about 200 year copyrights (well, only life of author plus 90), you'd think you'd be happy to know your spouse/child would have rights to your email until 2094.
If you're putting together a will, just tell the attorney that you want
All my porn... (Score:4, Funny)
ME & My Data Will live forever (Score:5, Funny)
Posted them on Kazaa, DC++, Emule, Limewire, Edonkey, Shareaze, Xolox, WinMX. Along with a picture of myself. WE WILL LIVE FOREVER!!!!!
We a experiencing a cultural transition. (Score:4, Interesting)
I made a password list for a customer, that, over time, has grown to 3,849 words. (There is a lot of explanation about how accounts are configured.)
I encrypted that list with an unguessable password that includes punctuation and numbers, using the excellent GnuPG [gnupg.org].
I sent the encrypted file by email to every responsible person who works for the customer, including the CEO. I demanded that everyone learn the master password, because otherwise, if something happened to me, they would have problems with their accounts and web site. I also copied the file to their hard drives.
Although I have made several demands in strong language, no one, NO ONE, has bothered to get the master password from me, even though I have suggested it in person to several people several times. So, they have the file, but have no access to it.
The fact is, the new world of computing (okay, not new to me or you) requires a huge cultural change, and the average person has mostly not gone very far in making that change.
Re:We a experiencing a cultural transition. (Score:4, Interesting)
Or you could write out the password and put it into a safe deposit box at the bank. Leave the key with your attorney, and instructions in your will. Better yet, give the entire password list to the company attorney.
Damn right nobody at the company wants to have access to all your passwords. What if you snap and decide to commit some act of information sabotage? Now you've got plausible deniability--'It only happened after I oh-so-responsibly (*ahem*) gave my passwords to senior management.'
Further, what happens if any of those senior officials leaves the company before you die? Now you've got to create a new password file and master password that they all have to rememorize--or the officer who left gets to sell all your secrets to the company's chief competitor.
Sometimes the most technical solution isn't the best.
What happens to my digital music? (Score:2)
Thought about it years ago. (Score:5, Insightful)
Directions to this information are in my safety deposit box at the bank, along with our wills, etc.
Some may laugh, but consider: Why leave hassles with your family (especially technically ignorant ones, like mine)? If they have easy access to these things then they can change or cancel services, modify settings, etc.
Living Trust (Score:3, Informative)
Something to think about (Score:2, Interesting)
Your $ubscriptions, etc, continue (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, it is most offensive to have to send death certificates to total strangers, in order to document that the person you say is dead, really is dead, thereby enabling the company to cancel your whatever-it-is. Believe me, I went through this with dialups and credit card companies. It took months to finally get every branch of every company involved to accept that they were not getting any more money. I have never seen a dead person rack up so many late charges on a credit card. After the company was notified of the death. Go figure!
It is so much better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. Somebody has to clean up the wreckage after you die, and it is much easier to gove that person the tools they need to do the job.
What happens on Livejournal when you die ... (Score:2)
My wife told me about this -- one of our friends is on here. I don't really do lj (my life is chronicled on Usenet!) so I'm not up on the politics, but apparantly people have tried to get people removed from this list, or to have their journals removed after their death, and lj (or somebody else, I don't know) has been unwilling to do so.
For most of us, this isn't a big deal (Score:2)
If you're the same as me (and you likely are), then don't be concerned.
Don't You Want to Live Forever? (Score:2)
Haven't you read this article [slashdot.org]?
Just a new twist on an old problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
My dad, for example, has three mortgaged investment properties in Arizona, a motorhome, a car, and a safety deposit box. That I know about. I have no idea what his bank accounts are, what other real estate he might own, what his liabilities are, or what other assets he might have.
Your electronic data is just another element of the poorly documented estate, and probably the least important one, unless you're someone truly interesting and have various letters and correspondence someone else might care about.
I dread dad dying unexpectedly. Not only will it be a personal loss, but it will be a huge PITA to get his estate sorted. Dad had a ton of problems when mom died, and she was his wife and he inhereted all of her stuff by default. At least I know enough to bee-line to the safety deposit box (for which I have a key) and to take out all the gold...
Back up your private key! (Score:3, Interesting)
This sort of thing is vital for decrypting your files after your death, or if you are injured and suffer amnesia, or other morbid scenarios in which your data outlives you.
StuntCopter (Score:3, Interesting)
These arcade games were programmed by Duane Blehm. They have all been previously released and are currently offered by most sources of Public Domain software. Duane unexpectedly died a year ago. Cairo ShootOut and Puzz'l required users to send $3.00 to Duane to receive a "Key Code" to unlock all of the features of the program. All of Duane's games contained offers to sell the source code of the programs to programmers who wanted to see how Duane wrote them. Duane's parents have been swamped with Key Code and source code requests that they are unable to supply. These new versions have been altered at the request of Duane's parents. These versions have been unlocked and will allow full access to all of the features. The offers for source code have also been removed. Duane's parents have requested that if you have any of the old versions of Duane's games that you destroy them and replace them with the new versions. Please do not distribute any of the prior versions. Distribution of these new versions is encouraged and requested. Thank You and Have Fun!
Re:Registration Free Link (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I've thought about this as well. (Score:5, Funny)
(Lawyer reading will:)
"And to Galadrian, my fine elvish friend, I leave you my crown of deception and my axe of slaughter. Don't weep at my passing. Try to rememeber the good times, like when we defeated the orcs during that GM event."
Tis Elvish Trickery! (Score:3, Funny)
Fine. At least I get the SUV.
Re:Err... (Score:2)
Re:Err... (Score:2)
Re:Time to start a business (Score:2)