Google Account is your solution to everything online. Whether it’s about your online purchases, or securing your search history or even sending and receiving emails. But have you come across to the existential question of the cyber world?- What would happen to my online identity after I depart from this world? Well, I don’t know how you are feeling now. But one thing for sure, the Internet Lord Google has a plan even for a deceased person’s account.
But before you start making your online will, keep this official statement from Google in your mind, “People expect Google to keep their information safe, even in the event of their death.” Which in a layman’s terms means that in no ordinary circumstances Google will provide anyone with the contents of a deceased person’s account. Its team goes through every such request on a personal basis. And when they are sure that your request to gain access to your recently passed loved one’s account is in compliance with its regulations then only it passes the login details to you.
Now it is your cyber duty to report a deceased person’s account to Google. You can do so by submitting a request regarding a deceased person’s account. The page will ask you to choose from the following three options:
- Close the account of a deceased user
- Submit a request for funds from a deceased user’s account
- Obtain data from a deceased user’s account
For the first two options, Google will redirect you to a form where you are required to fill in the details of the deceased user and the user requesting the information, death certificate of the deceased.
However, if you select the third option, Google will ask the user requesting to furnish a Court order for the same which must be issued by a competent court in the United States.
Google also offers you to set up your choices for when you no longer want to use your Google Account. This Google service called “Inactive Account Manager” offers a ton of options to dispose of your account. Inactive Account Manager lets you decide what happens to your account in case it remains inactive for a period of your choosing. You can set the timeout period for setting your choice in motion. It also offers you to share your data with a trusted user or friend of your choice. In such a case, your trusted contact will receive an email. The email will contain a link to your already selected contents.