Digital death



Last year the very talented Lauren E. Simonutti passed away. She was also known as Lauren Rabbit on deviantArt.  I did not know Lauren personally, only as an artist whose work really touched me.
I have just posted something about her work on Univers d'Artistes.
Her website is still active and her dA gallery has not been taken down. I believe this is a good thing, as it gives people an opportunity to appreciate Lauren's art. But recently a journalist friend, Pino Bruno,  who blogs about technology wrote a post that gave much food for thought. As it is in Italian, I will summarise it.
It seems that Google allows you to manage your account in such a way that you can indicate how long after it's been inactive it can be closed down. This can be done through the inactive account manager.
Apparently there is also  a free tool, DeadSoci.al which allows you to create scheduled messages to be distributed across social networks after we die, to say goodbye in our own special way.
 Can accounts be kept alive by relatives of the deceased person? Apparently not. Geoffrey Fowler wrote in the Wall Street Journal in January 2013 about the tribulations of a family that wanted to keep their daughter's Facebook account still alive.
There are some important issues to consider, here. What if someone impersonates a dead person? What if the account is kept up to date without communicating to the world at large that the account holder is actually dead?


Conversely, what will happen to the thousands of images uploaded online by artists such as Lauren? How can their work be accessed?
I have a gallery on dA which has most of my work as a model. If I were to die, what would happen to it? I suppose once I am dead it really won't matter to me anymore...
That's a sobering thought.

(All photos modelled by Alex B and taken by Vaida Kaklauskaite for Models of Diversity Mature Model Campaign)

Comments

  1. I have left all my passwords with my niece and arranged for her to inherit my blog and all my artwork. This was at her suggestion; I am fortunate that she values it so much. She also thought to take down the phone number of my best friend who lives in another part of the country so she will be notified at once. I think it is helpful to the living if we make our own arrangements for whatever we feel is of value. As the old adage goes, nothing is certain except death and taxes.

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