Digital life after death or incapacity raises questions about access, privacy, cybersecurity, inheritance, consent, memory and digital assets. This page collects the external sources we have read and verified, so you can check the underlying documentation yourself instead of taking our word for it.
Every entry below points to a document published by someone else: a platform’s own support documentation, a government service, or an institution. We add two things and nothing more — a short summary in our own words, and a note on why the source is relevant.
We do not reproduce the source text, we do not quote statistics that the original does not state, and we do not publish an entry whose original page we could not reach.
How an entry gets published
Sources reach this page in one of two ways: we add them directly while writing a resource, or our internal monitoring surfaces a candidate that an administrator then reviews. Nothing is published automatically. A candidate becomes an entry only after the original has been opened and read, the summary written from scratch, a category chosen, and the entry approved by a person.
The organizations and authors listed on this page do not necessarily endorse or partner with Solexi.ai. They are cited as independent sources that help document the broader digital legacy problem.
Academic research
Peer-reviewed and institutional work on digital remains, postmortem data and inheritance of online identity.
No academic reference has passed our verification process yet. We publish an academic source only once we have read it, checked that the original is publicly reachable, and can summarize it in our own words. Proposals are reviewed manually before they appear here.
Cybersecurity and privacy
How access, authentication and privacy interact when the account holder can no longer act.
Organization : Direction de l’information légale et administrative (France) — Source type : Government
French public administration page describing the rights heirs have over a deceased person’s online data and the instructions a person may leave in advance.
Why it matters : It is one of the clearest official statements that a person can record binding instructions about their data before death, rather than leaving heirs to negotiate with platforms.
Original source : service-public.fr — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : Government of Canada — Source type : Government
Official Canadian guidance listing the organizations that must be notified after a death and the information each notification requires.
Why it matters : Almost every item on that list now has an online account attached to it, which is where the administrative task and the digital task meet.
Original source : canada.ca — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : U.S. General Services Administration — Source type : Government
United States government overview of the steps that follow a death, including certificates, benefits and account closures.
Why it matters : It is a neutral, non-commercial baseline for readers in the United States, and it shows how much of the process depends on documents someone has to locate first.
Original source : usa.gov — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : Google — Source type : Official platform documentation
Google documents a setting that lets an account holder decide, in advance, how long an account may stay inactive and who should be notified or given a copy of selected data afterwards.
Why it matters : It is one of the few mechanisms configured by the person themselves rather than requested by relatives afterwards, which makes it a decision to record while capacity is intact.
Organization : Google — Source type : Official platform documentation
Google describes the request path available to close an account or ask for content once the account holder has died, including the documents the request requires.
Why it matters : It shows that a request is possible but never guaranteed: families should not assume access, and the process is easier when identity documents and account addresses are already gathered.
Organization : Apple — Source type : Official platform documentation
Apple publishes a legacy contact feature that lets a person nominate someone who can request access to their Apple account data after their death, using an access key.
Why it matters : The access key generated at setup is the practical failure point: if the family cannot find it, the process becomes much harder, so the key belongs with the rest of the family instructions.
Original source : support.apple.com — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : Apple — Source type : Official platform documentation
Step-by-step Apple documentation for designating a legacy contact and producing the access key that contact will need.
Why it matters : It is the page to follow when acting on the decision, and it makes clear that the designation happens on the device, not through a lawyer.
Original source : support.apple.com — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : Meta — Source type : Official platform documentation
Meta documents how an account can be turned into a memorialized profile, what changes visually, and what a memorialized account no longer allows.
Why it matters : Memorialization is a privacy decision as much as a memory decision: it preserves a public trace while permanently limiting what anyone can do with the account.
Original source : facebook.com — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : Meta — Source type : Official platform documentation
Meta describes the legacy contact role: a person chosen in advance who can manage limited aspects of a memorialized profile.
Why it matters : The role is narrow by design. Knowing its limits prevents a family from assuming that one designation solves access to messages or photos.
Original source : facebook.com — Reviewed by Solexi on 2026-08-25
Organization : Meta — Source type : Official platform documentation
Instagram documents how a relative can request memorialization or removal of an account, and what proof is required for each request.
Why it matters : Requirements differ from Facebook even though both belong to Meta, which is a concrete example of why one blanket instruction does not cover every account.
Organization : Microsoft — Source type : Official platform documentation
Microsoft explains what it will and will not do with a deceased person’s account and files, and how a next of kin request is handled.
Why it matters : Documents and archives often sit in email and cloud storage rather than in social media, so this is frequently the account that matters most in practice.
Sources about what families actually want to keep: photographs, recordings, stories and context.
No verified source published in this category yet. Solexi resources on family memory are listed under Read next rather than presented as independent research.
Pricing, in plain words
14 days free, 1 GB included during the trial
Then CAD $199, one time only
Lifetime access, 10 GB included
No monthly subscription, no renewal
Last reviewed : 2026-08-25
Solexi does not replace a legal will, a notary or a lawyer. Solexi helps you gather, organize and pass on your information.