Our everything-digital era has made it easier to preserve every last scrap of information about our lives, but eventually, many of us will have to face the question of who really controls our photo albums, letters, diaries, and other personal mementoes stored in the cloud or on password-protected hard drives. As it is, tech companies do not readily hand over passwords or account contents to third parties upon request, including family members of the deceased. Terms-of-service agreements generally prohibit it. Tech companies also contend that privacy laws prevent them from doing so. But a growing number of court cases in jurisdictions around the world, often involving parents whose children have perished under mysterious circumstances, have begun to push back against this reading of the law.
The Digital Afterlife by Brian J Barth at The Walrus