Prepare to meet thy online doom - Business - The Boston Globe

Posthumous social networking

"Google is perhaps the most humane. Last year, the Internet giant added a feature to let you pass on your files if you pass on. When you don’t log onto Google for, say, six months, the company will contact up to 10 people of your choice and grant them access to your files. You can be selective about it, letting the kids view your photos, for instance, but blocking their access to old e-mails. Or you can program it to delete your entire Google history after a preset period of time, and take your secrets to the grave.
It’s a sound approach that other companies should emulate. But with so many cloud services on tap — Dropbox, SkyDrive, Cubby, Shutterfly, and dozens more — you’ll still have to check out the policies at each one to be sure that your data won’t be buried alongside you."

Prepare to meet thy online doom - Business - The Boston Globe