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Markets in everything
Steve Horwitz reports:
This is a great article on CNN.com today about companies that will take care of your "digital assets" after you die. You pay them a fairly small fee and they keep track of all your email ids/passwords, bank accounts, etc. so that your loved ones can have access to them if you die without leaving all that information behind. They promise to store them securely of course.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 24, 2009 at 03:32 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
As the archive team noted, this is more or less a terrible idea. It's like a last will, only more expensive, and not legally binding. And, of course, if they go out of business, your information is either lost (bad) or ends up in hostile hands. (worse)
Posted by: bbot at May 24, 2009 4:03:48 AM
Forget CNN. NPR covered this a week or two ago.
Posted by: Matthew Dutton at May 24, 2009 4:19:58 AM
Imagine the ramifications if you forget your password for one of these "digital asset" companies! All of your other passwords lost. Thus, I have a new business idea: safely storing your master password.
Posted by: Stuart Buck at May 24, 2009 9:30:22 AM
This was a bit of an issue a few years ago, regarding a soldier who died in Iraq (his family sued to obtain access to his Internet accounts).
Not sure why this can't be covered in a will and the duties discharged by the executor, no different than winding down one's other affairs.
Posted by: KipEsquire at May 24, 2009 11:31:44 AM
Does anybody else feels it's kind of dangerous to keep all these sensible data stored together?
Posted by: Filipe Tomé at May 25, 2009 10:07:31 AM
