Public Policy Blog
Updates on technology policy issues
Plan your digital afterlife with Inactive Account Manager
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager
Not many of us like thinking about death — especially our own. But making plans for what happens after you’re gone is really important for the people you leave behind. So today, we’re launching a new feature that makes it easy to tell Google what you want done with your digital assets when you die or can no longer use your account.
The feature is called
Inactive Account Manager
— not a great name, we know — and you’ll find it on your Google Account settings
page
. You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason.
For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data from some or all of the following services: +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube. Before our systems take any action, we’ll first warn you by sending a text message to your cellphone and email to the secondary address you’ve provided.
We hope that this new feature will enable you to plan your digital afterlife — in a way that protects your privacy and security — and make life easier for your loved ones after you’re gone.
Labels
Accessibility
5
Ad
2
Advertising
11
AdWords
2
Anti-defamation league
1
Book Search
16
Broadband
11
Business Issues
26
Buzz
1
buzzemail
1
Canada
1
Child Safety
18
Chrome
1
Cloud Computing
2
Competition
19
Congress
10
Constitute
1
copyright
7
Cuba
1
Cybersecurity
9
D.C. Talks
16
Digital Due Process
1
Digital Playbook
1
Economic Impact
5
Economy
13
ECPA
4
Elections
24
email
1
Energy Efficiency
29
Europe
2
FCC
7
fellowship
2
Fighting Human Trafficking
1
Free Expression
54
Geo
1
Gmail
1
GNI
2
Good to Know
5
Google Fellow
2
Google for Entrepreneurs
1
Google Ideas
2
Google Maps
1
Google Policy Fellowship
1
Google Tools
77
Government Transparency
33
Hate Speech
1
Health
5
How Google Fights Piracy
1
Human trafficking
1
Identity theft
1
Immigration
1
Intellectual Property
19
International
46
Journalists
1
Malware
1
Maps
1
National Consumer Protection Week
1
Net Neutrality
24
Patents
5
piracy. ad networks
2
Politicians at Google
11
Politics
23
Privacy
93
Public Policy
1
Safe Browsing
3
scams
1
search
3
Security
17
Small Businesses
3
spectrum
4
State Issues
5
Surveillance
6
Technology for Good
1
Telecom
71
Trade
3
Transparency Report
4
White Spaces
23
WiFi Network
1
Workforce
5
Yahoo-Google Deal
5
YouTube
4
YouTube for Government
1
Archive
2015
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feed
Follow @googlepubpolicy
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
