Among family and friends at a Thanksgiving celebration a few weeks ago, I posed the question: do you ever contemplate what critical data on your phone you might share with others after you die?
Not a single person among the 15 people I spoke to had a thoughtful answer. More specifically, none of them had even contemplated the question until I asked it.
The intent of this question is not to be morose or glum (after all, it is the holiday season). But it is the question that most people don’t tend to contemplate, even in the smartphone era that we find ourselves living in. Interestingly, a recent Gallup poll found that slightly less than half of U.S. adults have a formal will that details how they would like their financial holdings and property to be managed after their death. In that context, it shouldn’t be surprising that most people don’t have a defined plan on how others would access their digital records and content after their demise.
Presumably, much of this reluctance is tied to confidentiality as people regard their smartphones as a private data “vessel” that is safe from the prying eyes of others. But putting those privacy-related reasons aside, people should have some time of plan that makes their photos, videos and other types of data —- which are literally the tapestry of one’s life in the modern era —- available to get transferred to surviving family members and friends. In Apple’s new iOS 15.2 release, the company has incorporated a new Digital Legacy setting that is a good pre-emptive thing for you to consider, despite a few reservations I have.
Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) have offered a feature very similar to Legacy Contacts for several years. Prior to iOS 15.2, Apple required that you obtain a court order (which could take several weeks or more to process) to get access to the data on an iPhone.
How do I get started?
Finding the setting is simple enough – after you upgrade to iOS 15.2, you go to Settings and press your name at the top. Choose Password & Security. Then, at the bottom of the screen, you’ll see Legacy Contact, where you can assign up to 5 “legacy” contacts if you have people already grouped in your Family Sharing plan, iOS 15.2. will proactively suggest those names. Once you’ve completed those steps, you’ve enabled the capability.
At its very core, enabling the Legacy Contact function will allow another party to have nearly total access to your Apple account and the data stored in it when you pass away. Most people will choose trusted family members and friends as their legacy contacts (more on that touchy subject later).
These legacy contacts will have nearly complete access to what’s in your iCloud account, such as messages, emails, notes, contacts, calendar info, downloaded apps, emails, videos, photos and even device backups. It should be pointed out that saved passwords in an individual’s iCloud keychain won’t be transferred and books, movies, or music that the individual might have purchased.
The biggest flaw, in my view, with Legacy Contact is that it’s an “all or nothing” type of feature, and I suspect that will be a problem for many users who would otherwise take advantage of the feature. I suppose Apple’s decision to go down this path is for simplicity purposes so that users don’t have to monkey around with the data categories they wish to pass onto others. On the other hand, Google provides the ability to discriminate about what data they want others to have access to.
How do legacy contacts get access to your data after you pass on?
After assigning someone as a legacy contact, the app provides these individuals with an assigned access key. Assuming that these legacy contacts use an iPhone, iPad or other Apple device, you can send these keys via a simple iMessage. These keys are stored locally and in an encrypted manner on the Apple device. You are also provided with an old-school print option so that you can print out the access keys and give them to your legacy contacts to store with other critical documents.
After you pass on, the legacy contact needs to visit Apple’s Digital Legacy site and provide their iCloud account info, along with the access key. The legacy contact will also need to upload an official death certificate. Upon providing this information, Apple’s legal team will review the request (which can take upwards of two weeks) and, if approved, gives the legacy contact an access link that creates a password for the account. This link can then be used on the web (or an Apple device) to view the data.
Should you enable this feature?
That’s the $64,000 question only the Apple device owner can answer. You should be very selective about the individuals you choose as a legacy contact. After all, it’s possible that once you make these selections, you’ll forget you’ve enabled this capability, and that person may have fallen out of favor with you over time. To be on the safe side, I’d only add one or two highly trusted individuals (such as your spouse) to minimize this possibility. One other suggestion might be selecting the executor of your will (if you have one) as a legacy contact, who could be more discrete about accessing the data that you decide to pass on.
Regardless, this is a critical capability sorely needed in the smart device era we’ve been living in for the past 15 years. It will be interesting to see if Apple updates this capability in the future so that you can be more selective about what data to pass on to others. In the short term, be aware that if you enable this function, your legacy contacts will have access to most digital content and data you’ve stored on that device. That fact will give many people pause, which is entirely understandable.
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