Ontology of Digital Asset After Death: Policy Complexities, Suggestions, and Critique of Digital Platforms

The digitization of our life has brought complexities associated with addressing digital life after one’s death. This study investigates two related issues of (1) privacy and (2) property of post-life digital assets. The understanding of digital assets has not been fully unpacked largely due to the current policy complexities in accessing and obtaining digital assets at death. These derive from restrictive corporate terms and ambiguous conditions drafted by digital service providers. This study calls critical attention to the importance of respecting users’ rights in digital environments that currently favor service providers’ interests. We argue that there are ethical blind spots in protecting users’ rights, given no ontological difference between people’s digital beings and physical existence. Fundamentally, we are concerned about the transition into the big data era in which collection, use, and dissemination of digital activities became integral part of our ontology even after a point of death.