What happens to online accounts after death?

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not apply to deceased persons: its Recital 27 leaves each member state free to set its own rules. France did so with the Digital Republic Act of 7 October 2016 (loi pour une République numérique), whose provisions now appear in Article 85 of the French Data Protection Act (loi Informatique et Libertés) of 6 January 1978.

The law sets out three things worth knowing:

• •You can leave instructions on how your data should be kept, erased and shared after your death, and name a person responsible for carrying them out.
• •Without instructions, your heirs can act with online services to the extent needed to settle the estate and to have the death taken into account: in particular, they can have your accounts closed or object to any further processing of your data.
• •Every online service must tell its users what will happen to their data when they die, and let them choose whether or not it should be passed on to a third party of their choice.

So the law does not give relatives general access to the deceased person's email or files. Its main purpose is to organise the closing of accounts and to make sure the person's stated wishes are respected. The legal details are explained in our guide Digital Will in France: What the Law Says.

On Facebook, a relative can report the death and ask for one of two things: turning the profile into a memorialised account, or deleting it. Proof is required (a death certificate or a published obituary, depending on the request).

A memorialised account shows the word "Remembering" next to the person's name. What was posted stays visible to the people it was shared with, and nobody can log in to the account any more.

The legacy contact. While they are alive, every user can choose a legacy contact in their settings. Once the account has been memorialised, this person can pin a post on the profile, change the profile picture and cover photo, respond to new friend requests or ask for the account to be deleted. They cannot log in to the account or read private messages. The same setting also lets you ask for your account to simply be deleted after your death.

On Instagram, a relative can ask for the account to be memorialised by providing proof of death, and an immediate family member can ask for it to be deleted with supporting documents. Instagram does not offer a legacy contact comparable to Facebook's.

Google offers a tool you set up while you are alive: the Inactive Account Manager. You choose a period of inactivity (from 3 to 18 months), then up to 10 people to notify. You can let them download some of your data (Photos, Drive, Gmail and so on) and ask for the account to be deleted afterwards. It is the simplest way to make sure your loved ones get your photos.

If nothing was set up, the family can submit a request to Google about a deceased person's account: closing the account and, in some cases, retrieving content. Google reviews each request case by case and never hands over the password.

Good to know: Google now deletes personal accounts that have not been used for at least two years. Without any action, a loved one's photos and emails can therefore disappear for good.

The Inactive Account Manager only covers Google. It does not pass on your letters or the practical information your family will need, which is why it is worth combining it with a tool that does.

Since iOS 15.2 (December 2021), Apple has let you choose one or more Legacy Contacts. Each one receives an access key. After the death, they present it to Apple along with the death certificate and get access to the data stored in iCloud: photos, notes, synced messages, files and device backups.

Some things remain excluded: iCloud Keychain (saved passwords), payment methods, and purchased films, music or books, which are licences rather than files that can be passed on.

Without a Legacy Contact, access becomes difficult. Apple can delete the account on presentation of a death certificate, but access to the data usually requires heavier legal paperwork, and an iPhone locked with a passcode stays inaccessible even to Apple. This is often the first obstacle families run into: the phone passcode. Our guide How to Pass On Your Passwords to Your Family explains how to plan for it safely.

Most major services have a procedure for deceased users, but none of them is automatic:

• •Microsoft (Outlook, OneDrive): accounts that have been inactive for two years are closed. Microsoft does not hand over a deceased person's password.
• •LinkedIn: a form lets you report a deceased member and ask for the profile to be closed.
• •X (Twitter): an immediate family member or a person authorised to act on behalf of the estate can ask for the account to be deactivated, with supporting documents.
• •WhatsApp: there is no procedure for passing an account on. According to its help centre, an unused account is generally deleted after 120 days of inactivity. Conversations stay on the phone until it is reset.

For all these services, bear in mind that the process takes time and almost always requires a death certificate. Drawing up a list of your accounts while you are alive saves the people you leave behind weeks of work.

The most important "online" accounts are not social networks but the ones with financial consequences:

• •Bank accounts are frozen as soon as the bank is informed of the death, with the usual exception of joint accounts, which keep working unless an heir objects. The notary handling the estate can search FICOBA, the French national register of bank accounts, to find every account opened in the deceased person's name.
• •Life insurance: relatives who think they may be beneficiaries of a policy can contact AGIRA, the French body that centralises these searches.
• •Subscriptions (phone, home internet, streaming, newspapers, gym) keep being charged until they are cancelled. Most of them accept cancellation on presentation of a death certificate.

A list of these contracts, with the names of the bank, the notary and the insurer, is probably the most useful document anyone can leave behind. That is exactly what the free practical file in Laterly is for, and it is only passed on to your loved ones if you stop responding.

One hour is enough to avoid most of the difficulties:

• •Facebook: choose a legacy contact in the "Memorialisation" settings.
• •Google: set up the Inactive Account Manager and choose which data to pass on.
• •Apple: add a Legacy Contact in your Apple Account settings.
• •Passwords: keep them in a password manager and plan a backup way in.
• •List of accounts and contracts: write down where your papers are, along with your bank, your notary and the subscriptions to cancel, without ever including a password.
• •Your own words: none of these settings passes on what you would have wanted to say. A letter to your loved ones can, and our guide How to Write a Letter to Your Children After Death shows how to get started.

Laterly brings the last two points together: your letters and your practical file are kept encrypted, Laterly checks in with you at regular intervals, alerts your trusted person if you stop responding, and then sends everything on. See how it works or check the pricing: the free plan includes one letter, the practical file and the trusted person.