What to Do Before You Die: A Tech Checklist

Over the years readers have asked me to write to big tech CEOs, begging to gain access to a deceased spouses’ account; they’ve asked how to capture the life of a terminally ill parent; they have asked how to continue to text with a dead friend.

So, even before Covid-19 put mortality on all our minds, I embarked on a video project about what is often referred to as “digital legacy.”

The two big areas to this topic are: first, how new technology can capture our important life stories, perhaps in new interactive ways, for the generations to come. The second, more mundane part is dealing with your digital life—how your accounts, files and folders can make it into someone else’s hands.