Privacy Guides

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In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

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How do people plan for their deaths in terms of account & device secrets (passwords, 2fa etc.)? (self.privacyguides)

submitted 5 months ago by Whooping_Seal to c/[email protected]

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I have thought about this on and off for quite a few years now, and I was just wondering what people here have done while maintaining account / device security.

I hope people don't mind this rather morbid conversation, but how have people here planned for what will happen with their accounts, computers, self hosted things etc. in the event of their deaths? I am particularly interested in what people have planned for if they are the person in their household who is self hosting things for the household. I'm not in a living situation that allows me to self host much but it is one of the questions I've had for myself when I decide to move in with my significant other and self host more things. I don't think they could manage much of the self hosted stuff and I also don't think they can remember all of the credentials for accounts etc., is the best way of going about it sharing a keepass database or bitwarden account with them?

In regards to my accounts, I am not expecting most of my accounts to transfer, if anything I'd much rather them be deleted (and I have enabled this feature where possible). There are a few however, that I wouldn't mind leaving to someone after my passing. Is there a privacy and security preserving way of setting this up?

I guess I have just been struggling with how to do this, ideally I would want a way for accounts to transfer to someone listed in my will, but I don't think it's a good idea to give ~2-3 people a copy of my keepass databse while I am still living.

I am looking forward to hearing what people's thoughts are on this matter, and I apologize again for such a morbid topic.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly the same question I asked 3 years ago when my brother died, and left all his tech stuff to his non-tech wife and kids.

Fortunately I was able to migrate whatever was important to cloud-based services.

But what will happen if this happens to me? I have no other siblings, and I made it a habit not consorting with techies: I don’t like nerds 😉, and I prefer to talk about other subjects in my spare time.

One of the reasons I used to self host a lot is privacy, and because I am an Open Source advocate. So I migrated everything important to commercial offerings which supported both, or at least the Privacy part.

I share a passwords through a password manager with my wife and kids, which gives them the keys to the kingdom. They can use my master password to unlock the doors. I also keep a paper with my most important passwords in a place my wife knows about, and can access without any proof of my death. Joint safes in the bank typically get sealed until the tax people have released the accounts.

Everything which I host myself now is disposable, and my wife knows she can turn it off without a second thought.

[–] Whooping_Seal 2 points 5 months ago

I've debated on using a bank safe but I'm still unsure about the regulations in my country regarding them. Notably what can law enforcement do without a warrant etc etc.

In terms of self hosting I think that'll likely be the route I go as well, where family can just "shut it down" upon my death. I'm sure my partner might want to keep a few things (e.g. my kodi setup) but the things they would want to keep aren't too difficult I feel.