Community Group Name
Death and the Digital Estate Community Group (DADE CG)
Introduction
In today's digital age, the internet permeates nearly every aspect of our lives, from social interactions and commerce, to accessing news and entertainment. However, amidst this digital revolution, a critical issue persists: the lack of tools for individuals to determine the fate of their digital accounts and data after temporary or permanent incapacitation or death. While some mechanisms exist, they are inconsistently available and often require individual configuration across various service providers—an arduous task beyond the reach of many.
This glaring gap underscores the pressing need for more effective mechanisms for individuals to consent to the handling of their digital estate. At its core, this issue transcends mere technological convenience. Managing a human’s digital estate is a matter of human rights—the right of individuals to manage their data and likeness, even when they are no longer able to do so themselves. As stewards of identity innovation , it is our duty to address this fundamental need and enable mechanisms for individuals to maintain agency over their digital legacy.
Deliverables & Organizing Principles
The proposed DADE CG will focus on the following deliverables:
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Document the current state of the art for managing individual choices for handling individuals’ digital estates. Identify and clarify examples of mechanisms currently deployed by platforms, social media services, and other large scale internet systems.
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Document individuals' experiences with handling the digital estates of others to identify the difficulties they face managing the digital estate of incapacitated or deceased friends, family, and loved ones. These accounts may be anonymized at the discretion of the individuals involved.
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Document the current state of government regulations, where they exist, for the management of individuals digital estates.
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Development of use cases for the management of digital estates to include the data stored by, or on behalf of, the user, or containing the users likeness in audio, video, or other digital formats. Develop nomeclature and roles for establishing delegated autorities which operate on behalf of an individual within a defined scope of authority.
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Identify and document use cases that are out of scope for additional DADE CG effort due to the existence of law or regulation where such use cases are sufficiently established and managed today.
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Develop educational information to raise awareness of the challenge and empowering individuals to assert control over their digital legacies effectively.
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Develop proposed high level data flows for a future set of mechanisms to enable a marketplace for management of individuals’ digital estates across providers.
The following are out of scope for the proposed DADE CG:
- Development of any protocols related to managing a digital estate. Any such protocol work will be deferred to a future working group.
The community group will operate under the following Organizing Principles:
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Respect: Death is a subject that touches every human. Yet, humans do not all consider death in the same light. A wide variety of cultural and religious traditions exist worldwide which must be respected and accommodated in all of the proposed CG’s actions and deliverables.
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Empowerment through Consent: We seek to empower individuals to enable informed decision-making regarding the management of their digital estate. The DADE CG will advocate for consent-driven use cases which protect the privacy and security of individuals, living and deceased.
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Interoperability and Accessibility: The CG’s work must promote interoperability among digital platforms to facilitate seamless data management and accessibility across diverse ecosystems, ensuring inclusivity, efficiency, and usability for individuals.
The DADE CG will operate in English. The work will progress via mailing list and telephone/internet conference calls combined with face-to-face meetings, where possible. We seek a 2 year charter to develop the deliverables identified above. At the end of this 2 year charter, we will assess the state of the DADE CG and determine whether to extend the charter, charter a working group to develop related protocols, or disband the community group.
Proposers
- Dean H. Saxe (Beyond Identity)