A friend died and Facebook offers to wish him a happy birthday. What is digital heritage?

The author of this text found himself in a somewhat similar situation when, on February 25, 2023, he received a message about the return of his former colleague, Lviv-based Swedish translator Levko Hrytsiuk, on Viber. He had died on November 25, 2020, but his phone number was active again.

What is a person's digital heritage, how can it be “willed” and what should relatives do if the deceased did not take care of it in advance — read in the article.

Assign a phone number to a subscriber forever

Iryna Papirnyk, a PR manager at a charity foundation, recalls receiving such a message: “Roman's mom is back on Viber! Welcome your friend back!”

It caused shock and confusion — her husband's mother, who was saved in the messenger like this, died six months ago.

“This experience was extremely unpleasant. After my mother-in-law's death, we turned off her phone and destroyed the SIM card, but unfortunately, we lost sight of the fact that her number could be reactivated by the operator and used by another subscriber,” says Iryna Papirnyk.

You could avoid this “greeting from the other side” by deleting the deceased person's number from your contacts database. However, not everyone remembers this, and not everyone finds it easy to simply take and erase a loved one's number from the phone book.

Taras Ishchyk, a soldier with the 103rd Brigade of the Territorial Defense, says that, for example, the military often do not delete the numbers of their fallen comrades because it is very important for them to keep these contacts in their phone book.

“And when it happens that the number of the deceased person is activated again, it knocks you out, it shakes you up,” says Taras.

He believes that the phone numbers of fallen soldiers should be assigned to them forever.

Combat medic Andrii Zholob does not perceive such situations negatively, he says: “As strange as it sounds, they evoke a warm emotion. When I see that the number of someones who has died has reappeared online, it is not fear for me, but another digital memory of the person, a kind of digital touch.”

You can permanently assign a phone number to a mobile subscriber by keeping it active regularly – by paying the tariff.

“If you want to prevent the number from being used (by someone else — ed.), it is enough to leave it in an active state. For pre-paid numbers, it means replenishment once a year in the amount of UAH 10 or more in one payment,” explained thetechnical support representatives of one of the mobile operators.

How to take care of digital heritage?

The subscriber's phone number is often linked to social media profiles, bank accounts, email accounts, and messengers — what can be called a digital heritage. Cybersecurity experts are unanimous: you should take care of this legacy in advance.

“I've been asked more than once to help access the account of a deceased person. By providing all the necessary evidence, you can get information from such accounts on Google. Sometimes I am asked to hack the account of a person who has died or gone missing, but this is impossible and, most importantly, illegal. I advise you to contact the police or the technical support of the platforms directly with a request for access to the accounts of the deceased,” says Andrii Baranovych, cofounder of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance.

Platforms that store the digital data of billions of users around the world have their digital legacy policies. For example, Google offers a service program called Inactive Digital Records Manager.

Here, the user can choose the time when their digital record will be deactivated in the absence of any activity — after 3, 6, 12, or 18 months. Next, you can select up to ten people who will be notified of the account's inactivity. They will have access to the data from the user's Google Drive. You should also specify whether you want to delete the inactive account.

If the user of the platform did not use the options of the Inactive Digital Records Manager during their lifetime, a special request form must be filled out for their relatives to access their data.

Relatives should provide the full name, e-mail address, personal data of the deceased person, and addresses of both parties. They should also provide scanned copies of the identity card and death certificate – they must be translated into English. The request will be reviewed by the support team, and if the deceased person's relatives are found to be related, they will be granted access to the account.

A Facebook user can appoint a successor to his or her account or choose to have it completely deleted after death.

“When we receive a notification that you are deceased, all your messages, photos, posts, comments, reactions, and information will be immediately deleted from Facebook. Your main profile and additional Facebook profiles will also be deleted,” theProfile Settings section says.

The third option for the user is that the account can become an immortalized profile. If the user has chosen the option to transfer the account to an heir, it is the heir who will be able to transfer the profile to immortalized status after his death.

The heir will also be able to manage the immortalized account – write a post about the deceased, update the main photo and the account cover photo, and accept friend requests. However, they will not have access to edit old posts on the page, and will not be able to read messages or unfriend people.

In the immortalized profile, the phrase “In loving memory” will be displayed next to the name of the deceased person. Friends will be able to leave comments on the page, and the deceased person's content will be available.

Such a profile will not appear in the People you may know section, in announcements, or in birthday reminders. No one will be able to log in to the immortalized profile account.

If a user suddenly dies and leaves no instructions regarding their account, relatives can contact the social network's support service and fill out a special form with a request to either immortalize or delete it. In addition to passport data and identity documents, the form requires a scanned and translated copy of the death certificate.

Taras Ishchyk, a soldier, believes that digital heritage management is important for the military. Before he was sent to the combat zone, he left his family the keys to all his digital resources, bank accounts, and other virtual assets.

The man says that the military has the option of making a will, which can be certified by the unit commander and will have legal force. However, according to Taras's observations, it is rare for someone in the military to think about the fate of their digital heritage.

Communicate with the dead online

Karina Haivoronska, the girlfriend of the deceased territorial defense fighter Opanas Khalikov, writes him a message on Telegram. She explains that there are many things left unsaid between her and Opanas. In this way, Karina tries to tell him everything, even though she realizes that her loved one is gone.

Ania Demontovych also called and texted her father, Oleksii, who was killed. She simply could not realize that her dearest person was killed by Russian shelling.

Social and military psychologist Oleh Pokalchuk explains that this behavior is related to the peculiarities of the human psyche.

“We cannot accept the departure of a person from our everyday communication. We talk to photos of our loved ones and communicate with them in our dreams. This communication process is natural. Communication with the deceased on social media is just a very convenient way of communication, typical for today,” says Oleh Pokalchuk.

Neural networks can be used to communicate with the deceased not only in one-way. Some services offer the creation of a digital clone – a companion for communication. One of the pioneers in this field was programmer James Vlahos, who created DadBot, an interactive memory of his deceased father.

In 2016, James' father, John Vlahos, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. James compiled an oral history of his father's life, which he then transformed into 203 pages of text.

However, this text seemed to Vlahos Jr. to be just a collection of facts that would be stored on his hard disk. He wanted his father to be able to communicate with his family even after his death.

With the help of a company that develops chatbots, the man turned the text into a digital copy of his father – the bot could tell stories in the style of Vlachos Sr., joke, and answer personal questions. It couldn't replace John, but in some ways it completely resembled him.

Over the years, James Vlahos has been improving his DadBot. Meanwhile, James's wife complained that talking to the bot made her despair because it was so similar to real-life communication with Vlahos's father, and she thought about his death every time.

In South Korea, programmers went a step further and created a virtual copy of a seven-year-old girl named Na-yeon who died of leukemia. Na-yeon's mother, Jang Ji-sung, was able not only to talk to her deceased daughter but also to “hold her hand”.

According to Iryna Papirnyk, PR manager of a charity foundation that cares for seriously ill children, such technologies could help parents who are experiencing loss.

“Neural networks are a way to prolong memory, a way to say goodbye or live certain joyful moments. If you approach this in a balanced way, there are more advantages to digital immortality than disadvantages,” says Iryna Papirnyk.

Digital memorial

At one time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine created the Book of Memory of those who died for Ukraine, where they posted data on military personnel and civilians who died since the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2014.

As of December 1, 2021, the Book of Memory contained a record of 4,490 people killed as a result of Russian aggression. By clicking on a photo, one could find biographical information about the deceased person, their burial place, state awards, and read comments from their loved ones. During a full-scale war, the Book is temporarily not updated with new stories.

“This initiative, the Book of Memory of those who died for Ukraine, should be developed and preserved. In my opinion, its functionality is better than the Pentagon's digital memorial. The Americans do not have more extensive biographies than we have on our website,” saidsoldier Taras Ishchyk.

The Abo Media Growth Agency also began creating a digital memorial with the outbreak of full-scale war. The Memorial memory platform, founded by media professionals, collects stories of those killed in the war: both civilian victims and fallen defenders of Ukraine.

As of early May 2023, the Memorial has written 3000 obituaries — short stories about the deceased person with their photo and comments from loved ones.

The idea of the Memorial is to commemorate every life lost due to Russian aggression and to create a culture of remembrance. Anyone can share a story about a deceased person by filling out a Google form on the website.

The text was prepared by Memorial, a memory platform that tells the stories of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russia, especially for hromadske. To report data on Ukraine's losses, please fill out the forms for fallen military and civilian victims.

Author: Volodymyr Mysan-Miliasevych