This new project investigates how to support users, especially older adults, in planning their digital legacy. A digital legacy is all of the digital information you leave behind: the accounts, files, emails, posts, photos, etc., and also the traces of your interactions, your ‘likes’, your chatGPT prompts, your shopping transactions, etc. When you die, if you have not planned appropriately, all of these accounts, digital assets, and interaction traces become abandoned. That’s a problem: it can attract hackers, the information can be stolen, private information that you wouldn’t want shared can be made public or used to bribe your loved ones, or your accounts can be held hostage, requiring your loved ones to pay ransom to regain control.

It’s important to plan for the proper closing of your digital accounts and to decide what to do with your digital assets. Who should have access to them? Or do you want them deleted? If you think about all the digital accounts and assets you have, this could easily become overwhelming. In our work, we are investigating how to support users in planning and managing their digital legacies. Several sub-projects to explore this are currently in the works. Stay tuned!