This is a morbid topic to think about, but now that we have so many email, social media and other password-protected accounts, what happens to the access to this accounts when you pass away? Enter PassMyWill, which launched a few weeks ago at TechCrunch Disrupt’s hackathon. PassMyWill is basically a will for your online assets. The site distributes your social network passwords to your trusted loved ones after you die.
Here’s how it works. On the site you create an account with your name and enter who your next of kin is and their email address. You also enter an encryption key that the recipient would know (i.e. the last four digits of your social security number). And then you enter the data, passwords and more that you want your next of kin to takeover once you pass. When you die, this information will be passed on to the recipient.
So how does PassMyWill figure out when you are actually dead? You connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts on the site, and the startup will monitor how often you are posting and what is being posted on your wall. Once PassMyWill is convinced you may be gone, your next of kin receives the ‘Dead Man’s Switch’ e-mail.
Founder Danil Kozyatnikov, who traveled to Disrupt from Siberia, Russia; assures that all data stored on PassMyWill is completely encrypted. Check out our video with Kozyatnikov (whose Startup Alley company Quest.li was chosen as an audience choice winner) below.
Leena Rao is currently a Senior Writer at Fortune Magazine.
Leena had a brief stint at Google Ventures as an Operating Partner.
Leena’s first role out of journalism school was at TechCrunch which she joined in 2008. She rose through the ranks becoming the Managing Editor for TechCrunch and a voice at TechCrunch Disrupt.
She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City.
She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was the captain of the women’s varsity tennis team. She has also contributed technology content for Oprah.com.