What Happens to Your Emails After You Die
Who gets to look after your inbox once you’re gone? The law isn’t exactly clear.
Death provides a sweet release from the hell that is replying to email, but it raises questions about who gets to look at your inbox after you’re gone. Laws governing digital content in the U.S. are all over the place—emails, pics, direct messages, and social media posts can be treated differently after you die—so know what options you have to protect yourself and your company, says Edina Harbinja, a senior lecturer at Aston Law School in Birmingham, England, and an expert in postmortem privacy in emerging technologies. Here are edited excerpts of her conversation:
• When you die in the U.S., what happens to your personal email?
In most cases, nothing, unless your family requests access or you’d set up an online tool.
• Like Google’s Inactive Account Manager?