An eighteen-year-old dies in an accident. His parents try to access his iCloud photos, but Apple blocks everything. His brother tries to recover the Bitcoin he was holding, but the private keys have disappeared with him. His girlfriend wants to read their WhatsApp messages, but Meta responds with a form to fill out and a six-month wait. None of them ever thought a plan was necessary. No one imagined that digital life could outlive the body, but without instructions. We are the first generation to leave behind substantial digital legacies: social media accounts, crypto wallets, photos in the cloud, web domains. And also the first to have no idea how to convey them.
The invisible heritage we leave behind
THEdigital legacy It's a concept that didn't exist until ten years ago. Today, it encompasses everything: from emails to social media profiles, from cryptocurrencies to cloud documents, from web domains to NFTs. A study presented at the CHI Conference 2025 analyzed user perceptions of "AI Afterlife," digital agents that simulate the deceased. The results? People are torn between the desire to preserve their memories and the fear of creating unhealthy addictions. The real problem, however, as I was saying, is that no one is planning.
Il National Council of Notaries In March 2025, the Italian government published an updated handbook on digital heritage. The document highlights an inconvenient truth: In Italy and Europe there is still no comprehensive legislation on the transmission of digital heritageThe rules vary from platform to platform, from country to country. Facebook allows you to nominate a "legacy contact," Google has the "inactive account manager," Apple has the "Legacy Contact." But what about TikTok? Twitter? Your crypto? You're practically alone there.
By 2070, according toOxford Internet Institute, The Facebook profiles of the dead will surpass those of the living. It's not a dystopian hypothesis: it's simple mathematics. Every day, thousands of people die, leaving digital traces. But only a minority has planned what will happen to those traces.
When identity survives the body
The paradox is that our digital identities can become immortal. As I was saying in this article, there are already cases of people who have created “digital replicas” of their deceased loved ones using artificial intelligence. In 2017, James Vlahos created the “Dadbot,” a chatbot based on his father’s voice recordings. In 2021Joshua Barbeau used GPT-3 to recreate his missing girlfriend. Does it work? Maybe. But it raises bigger questions than it answers.
Digital heritage: the Italian regulatory vacuum
The traditional will is not enough. You can write “I’m leaving my Instagram account to my sister,” but if Instagram says no, your sister is left out. Passwords are not inheritable assets in the legal sense: they are access keys. The notary suggests two ways: the post-mortem exequendum warrant, with which you entrust someone with the management of your digital data, or the digital will, where you specify who inherits what. But here's the problem: the platforms are based abroad, often in the United States or China. Their policies prevail over Italian law. And many provide for automatic account closure upon the user's death.
Il GDPR European Union protects the personal data of the living, but what about the dead? Privacy Code Italian allows those with a legitimate interest to exercise rights over the deceased's data, unless expressly prohibited. Translation: If you haven't left clear instructions, your heirs may be able to access your data. Or they may not be able to. It depends.
Cryptocurrencies: the extreme case
Cryptocurrencies are the perfect example of chaos. Whoever owns the private keys owns the Bitcoins. If those keys die with you, your Bitcoins are gone forever. There's no central bank to call, no customer support. According to some estimates, Between 10% and 20% of all Bitcoins in circulation are unrecoverable. because the owners died without leaving the keys to their heirs. We're talking about billions of dollars evaporated. And the problem extends to NFTs, web domains, and accounts with economic value.
Digital Heritage: What Can We Do Now?
The solution isn't complicated, it's just ignored. First: take an inventory of your digital assets. Every account, every password, every wallet. Second: appoint a digital executor, a trustworthy person who knows where to find everything. Third: use existing toolsApple, Google, and Facebook offer options for designating digital heirs. Use them. Fourth: write a digital will with the help of a notary. Specify who inherits what and how to access it.
A disturbing fact: according to Digital Legacy Association, less than 5% of people have planned their digital legacy. This means that Over 95% of us will leave a digital mess for our loved ones. Not because we are irresponsible, but because we keep putting it off.
The problem isn't technological. It's cultural. We continue to think of death as something distant, something that concerns others. But digital identities don't wait. They grow every day, layer upon layer, accumulate value. And when we pass away, they remain there. Suspended. Inaccessible. Or worse: accessible to those who shouldn't be.
We are the first generation with immortal identities. It's time to decide what to do with them.
