Your digital presence

Your digital presence is everything that you leave in the form of electronic data, for example photos on your PC, emails, documents in your e-Boks, profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, dating sites, etc.

As more and more of our communications occur online, the need to consider what should happen to this data when someone dies also becomes important.

Your relatives can legally not demand access to your digital information.

If you want them to access this part of your  possession, it's important that you make sure you write down all usernames and passwords, and store them together with your personal papers, or give the information to one of your relatives or a lawyer.

If you have personal documents or pictures somewhere virtual or on your PC that you don’t want others to access, then you need to continuously clean up and delete material as much as possible.

It’s important that you know that, if you want to influence what happens to the material, you have to actively do something about it yourself.

When someone dies, all access to their e-mail is deleted.

This applies to the person’s own access and to others who have read access.

The authorities can no longer send emails to the deceased.

However, your relatives may be able to access your e-mail if they have a probate certificate.

If you, as a relative, want to delete a user account and profiles on social media, online drive, e-mail accounts, etc. you must look into every single media’s guidelines and procedures.

In some cases, you'll be able to delete the profile by filling out a form, if you can document that you are the deceased’s closest living relative.