In the Unlikely Event

Of one's own death, what happens to all your emails, websites, blogs, bank accounts and bills with online only access? Searching for another topic, I came on a nifty article in Time Magazine, "How to Manage your online life when you're dead." There are several companies now that will store your details--passwords, and so on. They'll check in with you periodically to see if you're still alive, and if some number of e-mails go unanswered, they'll release your information to a designated recipient--who has to present your death certificate in order to get access to your files.

I've actually often wondered about how my husband or estate would tell American Express and everyone else to cancel my accounts. These services seem to provide the answer. Now, all we can do is hope that they're not run by enterprising 28-year-old hackers like Albert Gonzalez. Who, I gather, is not related to another criminal mastermind, a former US attorney general of (almost) the same name--Alberto Gonzalez was one of the key promoters of Bush's policies on torture.