What's the better more secure way to store this info along with any wishes regarding your digital (after)life if I want to make it easier for my kids or whomever digs through it later? Any additional info thats helpful to include? Who to entrust it with?
Whomever you want to wrap up your affairs should have access to your email account, as all password recovery roads lead there (caveat being Apple, if you attempt iCloud recovery without the device passcode, you could be waiting weeks to reset the account password; get those legacy contacts configured).
https://bitwarden.com/pricing/
https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT212360
https://www.androidauthority.com/data-after-death-google-fac...
There was a website that sprung up a few years ago... a woman who went through something similar, I think her husband passed all of a sudden, and its not something we think about, but not leaving any will or any wishes legally makes everything much harder.
https://getyourshittogether.org/
My spouse and I recently separated and I do not have any children, so its a constant on my mind. I could be gone tomorrow. Luckily, I don't have anything major other than a very popular website I run that would be missed, but I've always alerted anyone wanting to publish on it... I plan to be here for another 50 years... your article exists on the website for MY lifetime.
I really do wish that Google or Facebook or Microsoft would finance a "forever project" that takes over websites and archives them, so no changes are made, but the bills for it are paid. Unfortunately, it's really just not a reality that could happen. But if you do have kids, friends, etc., it might be best to leave them with your wishes and hopefully some money to try and pay for the projects or accounts you want to be there.
However, when you really think about it, the only one it really matters to is you.. and after you're gone.. your time here is done. It's not that important. It was just earthly stuff you did while you were here. Only the rich have the real contingency plans... I'm sure Zuck and Musk and Bezos and all have people to take over. Apple and Microsoft are likely already covered since Microsoft and Apple has been running without Gates and Jobs for years.
My brother (then 25) and I (then 19) assigned ourselves the task of clearing out the porn.
No one else had to see it, you're welcome, Dad.
You don't think about these things until they happen.
P.S. to anyone who hasn't lost someone close: there's a lot of bespoke awkwardness unique to every individual's death
I've never talked to him about this, but I ought to do it the next time I see him in person. At some point I plan on handing him a drive containing my backups just in case, but I'm unsure about whether to encrypt it or not, nor have I considered how he could access my password manager for my active accounts if anything goes wrong.
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If you'll excuse the self-promotion I very recently wrote a blog post about how backing up old files has suddenly felt melancholic, and I briefly mention some offhand thoughts about data after death.
1. Business model - people won't want to pay more than a few bucks a month (think Dropbox/G Drive) for this service. But unlike those, this service is much smaller TAM and much more litigious
2. Company structure - How can you ensure people's belongings will be in good hands forever, or at least a really long time. C Corp? Non-profit? What happens if your company dies?
3. Technical decisions - How can you ensure you've picked a provider that will last as long as your company?
This was one of the few interesting use cases of crypto, since it partially fixes each of these problems, but then you are back at square 1 when you realize mass market doesn't want to rely on crypto backed tech or business model.
TBD on how this problem will be solved, but I'm highly interested in it and quit my job years ago to pursue a version of digital time-capsules. It's just not a straightforward SaaS once you get into the weeds.
Our priceless family photo collection is organized in Flickr (the only account for which my wife and I share login credentials) and backed up to an unencrypted external hard drive in my desk drawer. At most, my wife and kids would lose only the last few weeks of photos that are still on my phone.
My wife has her own login credentials for our joint financial accounts. For accounts in only my name, nobody should be logging in with my credentials after I'm dead anyway; there's a proper method for notifying the institution of my death and having assets transferred to beneficiaries.
Our most important personal and financial documents (which include a listing of financial assets and institutions) are on paper in a box and / or in a shared Google Drive folder which, again, my wife can access with her own credentials.
I think it's important to be organized with the stuff that you want to pass on, but not important to make sure that everything is passed on.
I also keep an offline backup encrypted with an estate password. The password is stored with my trust documents.
In a similar, but different vein, I've recently found interesting to think about how all the photos of yourself tend to live on other people's phones – whereas photos on your own tend to be of places and other people.
Mac owners can't even an usb from 5 years ago into their computer.
My second best.
Basically as close to analog as possible.
Everything else seems extra.
echo "hello world" > ./life; cat life > /dev/null