What'll happen to your Google account after you pass away?
If you haven't already, you might want to think about what will happen to your Google account once you pass away. Google contains a lot of personal information about you and it is important to pre-plan what happens with that information when you are no more. Fortunately, Google offers a simple service that lets you prepare your account for perpetual inactivity. Here's how.
Give Google data to someone who can safeguard/destroy it responsibly
Google's Inactive Account Manager allows you to specify whom should Google hand over your digital data to, after your account has been inactive for a particular length of time. The people you identify to administer your data can also be verified via SMS. You can also specify if you want your account to be terminated 90 days after all the required information is shared.
You can choose exactly what data is to be shared
You can choose to share information from all Google services including Blogger, Chrome, YouTube, G Suite, Google+, Photos, Play Store, Search history, and Google Drive. This will ensure that your friends and family get hold of important documents, credit card information, and memorable pictures.
The trustee of your digital footprint
The person you chose will receive a message stating you wanted to give them your data, details regarding that data, a link to download it, and a pre-written personal message if any. Alternatively, if a user didn't use the Inactive Account Manager, their family members can contact Google about their account, provide proof of death, and request specific items to be shared with them.
Notably, nobody is given direct access to your account
"We can work with representatives to close the account of a deceased person, and we may provide content from a deceased user's account. Our primary responsibility is to keep people's information secure, safe, and private. We cannot provide passwords or other login details," Google writes.
