Lawyer Alexandra Eder explains in an interview with the newspaper “Krone” what happens to e-mail addresses, profiles on social media sites and other online information in the event of death.
Life without smartphones, computers and the Internet is hard to imagine. Everyone leaves behind a number of digital footprints. More and more purchases are made online, online subscriptions are made and information is exchanged and managed online. But what happens to e-mail addresses, social media profiles and streaming rights, blogs, accounts etc. when the user dies?
Even finding and assigning digital content is often problematic. Data is stored on servers scattered all over the world. Users are often present on the net not using their real names. It is therefore often impossible to assign digital content to specific natural persons. Even if digital content can be clearly assigned to a deceased person, problems arise.
In particular, the question of whether, when and to whom data must be passed on in the event of death has not been clearly clarified by law.
You can read the entire article in the issue of the Kronenzeitung of 29.12.2018: Kronenzeitung_291218
