This article has been written by Ms. Sanjana Kumari, a student of 2nd year student of Llyod Law College, Greater Noida.

Abstract

We are living our life online increasingly and increasingly nowadays. We wangle internet banking, investments online and into liaison with our family and friends through various social media and other ways over the internet. In this context it is rhadamanthine increasingly and increasingly important that what happens to our digital existence without our death. In the process of digital inheritance, digital media is handed over to the beneficiaries in the form of rights and digital resources understanding the rights that exist with the beneficiaries without a person’s death. As the digital inheritance concept is quite fresh, substantial legal systems are yet to be established to deal with matters without our death. It is for that reason the websites who govern the act of the users. It is well-spoken that a comprehensive legal wattle is necessary to write this important issue of digital inheritance and hopefully this will be dealt with by the various Governments wideness the world in due course. This paper explains the concept of Digital Inheritance and explores the various options social media services provide for managing a deceased user’s data. An effort is moreover made to suggest that Digital Will may be a nomination to write this problem.

What is Digital asset?

Digital resources are the result of the economy rhadamanthine increasingly digitally connected. They are distinguished by their binary nature and potential or very worth. Nonetheless, the extant literature lacks a consensus definition of digital assets. These resources are specified as electronic records containing an individual’s right or interest under the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Resources Act (RUFADAA), excluding underlying resources or liabilities unless those are moreover electronic records. Networked system assets, software assets, hardware assets, service assets, robotic assets, data assets, metadata assets, and digitally unfluctuating devices are only a few examples of the several forms of digital assets.

Particular legal problems occur when traditional starchy rights objects move into electronic or digital formats. Legally speaking, it is reasonable to recognize them as digital resources given their particular qualities and requirement for specific legal handling. Differentiating between a wide and restricted definition of digital resources is crucial. All property that exists digitally or electronically and has the potential to be used in the transfer of wealth is considered a digital asset. Digital assets, in this context, are new economic entities created by the use of digital technology.

To guarantee the legal stability of property transfers involving digital assets, a specific legal framework must be established, either by modifying current starchy legislation or by creating new rules. To develop conceptual approaches and recommendations for unrepealable legal regimes, it is crucial to determine the legal weft of these resources and separate them untied from matching legal occurrences in digital form.

When someone passes away, they may have increasingly than just physical possessions or property. Their trail extends into cyber space as well. Their stuff there on social media, investment sites, and other locations on the internet, may have some financial value, present or future. Family members and tribunal are left with well-healed email messages, social media accounts, and other digital remains that may  have  considerable personal or  financial value. But  what happens  when loved ones or executors have the required passwords, but have  no well-spoken  validity to  wangle  or manage  the deceased’s  accounts?  This  is  an  important  issue  of digital inheritance in the 21st century.  Succession rules have unchangingly unswayable who will, in what  way,  inherit  decedent’s  property. When  there are  only  tangible  items  to  inherit,  there  are  no significant problems and if there were any in the past, they  were  settled  a long  time  ago. 

However,  a new type  of  resources  –  digital  resources  –  have  emerged  and neither their owners nor legislators know what to do with them in terms of succession. A lot of these resources are stored on on-line accounts, so, without one considers internet  service  providers  (ISPs),  who  decide  what rights  a  person  has  over  his/her  worth  and  its content,  the  situation  becomes  plane  increasingly complicated.  Humans  have  piled  increasingly information  in  the  past  two  years  than  in  all  prior human  civilization  and  a  well-spoken  majority  of  that information is in a digital form. Also, utility providers, phone and internet companies, banks and credit cards have nowadays moved into a digital domain and most of  them  plane offer  incentives if  their customers  go paperless,  both  considering  it  is  cheaper  and largest  for the  environment.  Most  newspapers  are  now  stuff published  online,  shopping  is washed-up  on  the  Internet, people communicate through e-mails or social media. Today, photos,  music,  and videos  are predominantly in a  digital form. 

So,  the majority  of  what was  once tangible is now digitized. Digital resources are veritably new  and  the  resources  constantly  change,  and  nobody exactly  knows  what  this  term  encompasses  since there are a  lot of variegated definitions of these assets. Digital resources are intangible media information stored in  computers  and  other  technologies  related  to computers.  The  wangle  to  this  information  can  be mainly using a computer, storage drive, smart phone, internet  or  server  by  a  third  party  like  ISP.  They include  e-mail  accounts,  blogs,  social  networking sites, personal webpages, documents, videos or photo storage  sites  and  it  is  likely  that  this  list  will  be expanded  soon.  However,  not  many  people  think well-nigh what will happen to these items without they die, let  vacated  make  plans  for  it.  These  assets,  their ownership, and succession should be legally regulated considering today most  of us  cannot  plane imagine  what other  types  of  digital  resources  will  be  created  soon. Nevertheless,  the  current  law  dealing  with  the inheritance of digital resources is sparse and this problem is intensified if a person who owns digital resources dies automatically,  since  a  lot  of  very  important  digital resources  are  controlled  solely  by  various  ISPs,  their relationship  with  worth  holders  moreover  needs  to  be considered.  Now the time has  come  to think well-nigh the wangle of the  departed  person’s  digital  footprint  and  how  far into  superhighway  their  presence  reaches.  It’s  very important to include our  online  finance during  the serendipity planning process. Failure to plan superiority may prevent loved ones, friends, and and plane tribunal from accessing  or  recovering  photos,  videos,  or  plane accessing  online  accounts.  This  could  moreover  uncontrived towards  increasingly  daring  crimes,  such  as  post-mortem identity theft or fraud.  

The privacy problem is rather interesting. On the one hand,  all  of  us  have  our  little  secrets,  and  to summarize,  when  most  people  die,  the first  of  their last wishes is to  have their online history deleted or, at least, not have it fall into the wrong hands. In specimen the  social  media  profiles  of  individuals  who  have deceased  is  left unmonitored,  they  wilt  unshut  to cybercrimes  like  identity  theft,  trolling  and  several similar  frauds  by  hackers.  It  is  a  known  fact  that there is  nothing known  as privacy  without death.  Now what if a person dies unexpectedly and the legal heirs were  forced  to  resort  to  some  unethical  ways  to recover  his  digital  data,  including  having  to  rent  a hacker.  The  law,  however,  is  quiet on  this  issue  not  just  in India  but  plane  abroad.  Several  US  provinces  are pondering  on  the  issue  that  whether  families  can wangle  someone’s  digital  belongings  without  they  pass away.

Laws  concerning  digital  legacy  have  taken  a while  to  take  shape, plane  in  the U.S.  Delaware  was the first state to come up with  a  Fiduciary Wangle to Digital Resources and Digital Finance Act, which allows families to  inherit  digital  resources  just  like  they would physical  ones.  And  the other  states  are yet  to fully reservation  up.  As in  India, there  are  no  such  legislation and it seems far away. In such a situation, planning a digital  will  to  assign  a  legal  inheritor  to  take  over your  digital  existence  is  the  only  and  weightier alternative. In  the  present  paper  the  authors  have made a  systematic  study  on  various issues  in Digital Inheritance in Indian  Context and moreover  in the  unshorten globe.

What does the Digital Personal Data Protection Act mean? What are its objectives? 

In our rapidly waffly digital environment, the implementation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act in 2023 marks a major urging in defending individual privacy rights and encouraging good data management practices. This ground-breaking law aims to strike a shielding wastefulness between upholding individual rights and satisfying organizations’ lawful needs for data processing, underscoring the rising significance of protecting personal data.

This Act’s primary goal is to regulate the processing of digital personal data while upholding people’s right to protect their data and whereas the need to handle and use it for legitimate purposes. The Act’s wording is simple and easy to understand, making it wieldy to everyone. The Act moreover aims to create a thorough legal framework for India’s regulation of the protection of digital personal data.

In Singapore, a vital stratum of protection for personal data is established under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). It functions in conjunction with industry-specific legislation and regulations such as the Insurance Act and Banking Act. A number of regulations are outlined in the PDPA that regulate the collection, use, disclosure, and towardly management of personal data in Singapore. It moreover establishes a nationwide ‘Do Not Call (DNC) Registry’ where people may register their Singapore phone numbers to opt out of receiving unwanted telemarketing calls from businesses.

With regard to the obligations of Data Fiduciaries (Organisations that handle data) and Data Principals (Those to whom the data belongs), the proposed law seeks to safeguard digital personal data in India. It seeks to modernize living and merchantry conditions, cultivate India’s digital economy and innovation ecosystem, and enact data protection legislation with the least value of disturbance possible. The legislation is based on seven key tenets: Permission; legitimate, transparent use of personal data; restriction of data usage to specific purposes; minimization of data; verism of data; reasonable storage limits; and peccancy of individuals and organisations for data breaches and violations.

“The law uses straightforward language and little cross-referencing, making it brief, understandable, and practical. It moreover acknowledges the role of women in the legislative branch. People have several rights, such as the worthiness to view details well-nigh how personal data is processed, the worthiness to update or remove data, the worthiness to file complaints, and the worthiness to designate a representative in the event of their demise or incapacity. Establishing security measures, reporting data breaches to the Data Protection Board and unauthentic Data Principals, erasing data when no longer needed or upon consent withdrawal, keeping up a grievance redressal system, and waxy to spare requirements for Significant Data Fiduciaries are all required of Data Fiduciaries.

The measure moreover safeguards children’s personal information by forbidding harmful practises like tracking, monitoring, and targeted razzmatazz while permitting processing with passport from parents. Security, sovereignty, public order issues, research, archiving, statistical reasons, entrepreneurship, and upholding legal rights are among the exemptions included in the measure. The duties of the Data Protection Board include directing the investigation of data breaches and complaints, directing complaints to volitional dispute resolution processes, and recommending to the government that websites or apps belonging to Data Fiduciaries that unceasingly violate the terms of the snout be blocked.”

What happens to your social media finance when you die?

Traditionally only movable and immovable resources are considered for the purposes of inheritance and / or at the time of making a Will. Often intangible movable property such as intellectual property is moreover considered. More recently people have moreover started preparing a Medical Will or a Living Will which provides for the line of medical treatment one would want ( or not want) in specimen of a terminal illness or a terminal medical condition. What is not stuff considered is the disposal of digital resources or digital property upon ones death, perhaps for the want of an enabling Law in India.

The Information Technology Act defines data or information as a valuable windfall as it provides for starchy reliefs such as bounty or punishment as a criminal remedy in specimen the data is unauthorisedly accessed, copied or tampered with. The Act recognizes ownership of data which is an intangible property and hence the same is transferrable, assignable and inheritable. Broadly digital resources can be specified as Email accounts, Social media finance such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Websites or Blogs, Domain names, to name a few

So the question is, what happens to these the digital property when you die ? Can these digital resources be included in your WILL as a part of Digital Inheritance ?

Another point to consider as to why it is important to manage these digital resources without one’s death is considering while online finance have sentimental meaning to some, they are likely to be valuable to hackers, fraudsters and trolls who’d like to seem your identity, sell your information or use your worth as a ways to launch attacks on other Internet users, like your online friends. The consequences of ignoring our online finance in our wills might lead to difficulties lanugo the line, as it makes the finance vulnerable to exploitation.

How to manage the Digital Resources without you die ?

Most of the Digital Resources that you ‘own’ are in the custody of third parties or intermediaries such as your Cloud Service Providers, Email Service Provider, Social Media Companies , Domain name service Companies to name a few. These third parties or intermediaries will have specific terms and conditions to manage these digital resources upon the death of it owner and these terms will be specified it in Finance Data and Privacy Settings. Thus it is important to transpiration Finance Data and Privacy Settings to your nomination to manage the data in these finance without your demise. So  in order to manage the Digital Resources without you die, the provisions and settings have to be configured while you are alive.

You may moreover include the digital resources in the Will to ensure the digital inheritance as per your nomination and Will. Here are a few suggestions.

What can be included in the Will for digital inheritance?

You may segregate to unroll wangle details of Computers, Laptops, smartphones, digital locks , etc to a particular beneficiary

You may unroll ID and Password with directions to wangle details regarding online financial services such as Bank Accounts, Credit Card / Debit Card details,  UPI / Online Payment Services and other types of sensitive finance OR prepare a list of all such sensitive finance and requite directions to a particular payee or the Executor to woodcut / tropical all such sensitive online accounts. (Appointment of a digital heir is however unrecognized by law and may have to be supported by a respective bequeathment in the Will. In the sparsity of the Will, all legal heirs will have rights in the Digital Resources as per heirship document or a Succession Document as per provisions of the Indian Succession Act )

You may segregate to manage data residing with third party companies such as Google, Social Media Companies, Cloud Services, Websites and Blogs

How to manage your data in Social Media Finance without your demise?

Some social media services indulge you to designate a person to manage your worth when you die or specify whatever else you might want to happen to your worth upon your death (by managing the Worth and Privacy Settings) Some social media services indulge family members to manage the worth on production of proof of identity and provide proof your death as unelevated :

Facebook and Instagram allows users to memorialize the worth or have it permanently deleted. Memorializing the worth allows someone to share one last post from the worth  in specimen they want to share funeral plans or post a tribute, transpiration your profile picture and imbricate photo as well as respond to new friend requests. Any posts shared surpassing the worth was memorialized cannot be edited or removed.

Twitter cooperates with an authorized point of contact to work on deactivating an worth without the user dies. Twitter will not indulge someone to have worth wangle to post anything or make any changes to the account.

LinkedIn has a similar policy to Twitter, in that deceased users’ finance will be sealed out when requested by a friend or family member on production of a death certificate

Google finance (Google , Gmail, YouTube and Google search history) under the settings of “Data and Privacy” allows you to set up the “Inactive Account” full-length so that the worth becomes inactive without Google notices non-usage for the well-set number of months and then allows the designated person have wangle to files / data chosen or decided by you.  In the volitional ‘next of kin’ can contact Google to tropical the worth or request data, however, it’s up to Google’s discretion to hand over data.

Microsoft email finance (Hotmail, Live, MSN or Outlook) indulge users to submit a next-of-kin request to segregate what happens to the worth if they die either tropical it out or alimony it active. Microsoft will send them a DVD with the account’s data.

Apple, will indulge loved ones to factory reset devices so that they can use them without the owner dies, but they will not help someone retrieve the device’s data.

Third party Service provides will be extremely cautious surpassing handing over any data of the deceased person to a claimant due to the data protection and Privacy concerns and stringent compliance of the workable Data Privacy laws

Key Regulations, Case Law and Guidelines

• Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 (“2021 Bill”): The 2021 Bill is currently tabled before the Indian Parliament for approval. While not yet available in the public domain, the 2021 Bill is reported to set up an enabling framework for official digital cryptocurrencies to be issued by the RBI, and to prohibit private cryptocurrencies not issued by the State, based on news reports. There is no clarity on the definition of private cryptocurrencies. However, this 2021 Bill has not yet been notified and does not have the effect of law. Prior to the 2021 Bill, the Inter-Ministerial Committee, Government of India had proposed the ‘Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019. However, this bill did not materialize into law.
• Amendment of Schedule III of the Indian Companies Act, 2013: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has recently issued a notification amending Schedule III of the Companies Act, 2013 and requiring companies to disclose their profits/loss and amount of virtual currencies held, in their financial statements from April 4, 2021.
• Union Budget 2022 – 2023: The Union Budget announcement of 2022-2023 specifies that (i) income from VDAs is proposed to be taxed at 30% and loss from transfer of VDAs cannot be set off against any other income; (ii) ‘tax-deducted-at-source’ of 1% of consideration is proposed to be levied on any payments made in relation to transfer of VDAs, subject to a monetary threshold (this was later included in S. 194 S of the Income Tax Act, 1961); and (iii) recipients of virtual assets as gifts are also proposed to be taxed.
• Guidelines for the advertising of Virtual Digital Assets and linked services: The Advertising Standards Council of India, the advertising
• industry’s self-governing body issued ‘Guidelines for the advertising of Virtual Digital Assets and linked services’ (“Guidelines”), a first of their kind in India in 2022. The Guidelines came into effect on April 1, 2022 and are applicable to all new advertisements on virtual digital assets released or published after this date. The Guidelines set out standards for advertising of VDAs such as the type of disclaimers to include, information that may be advertised/relied on and details to be shared, among other things.
• Other Applicable Regulations: Other Indian legislations that may apply to VDAs and the entities that deal in them would include the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• Internet and Mobile Association of India v. Reserve Bank of India (Writ Petition (Civil) No.528 and 373 of 2018): On April 6, 2018, a circular was issued by the RBI which imposed a prohibition on dealing in virtual currencies (“Circular”). However, in March 2020, the Supreme Court of India quashed this Circular on the grounds of proportionality as the RBI was unable to show semblance of any damage suffered by its regulated entities due to such virtual currencies. This judgment of the Supreme Court does not in itself contemplate whether cryptocurrency ought to be banned in India or not. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, the RBI issued a clarification in May 2021 that the Circular was no longer in effect.

Significant Reports

• One of the earlies reports on VDAs was the Inter-Ministerial Committee Report of 2017, available here. This report was drafted to analyze the potential application of VDAs and distributed ledger technologies in the trade and finance sectors in India and propose actions to be taken with regard to VDAs.
• The SG Garg Committee Report of 2019, available here, set out the many issues (regulatory and otherwise) related to cryptocurrency and legalizing the same in India.
• More recently, the RBI’s Financial Stability Report of 2021-2022, accessible here, analyses crypto assets and their possible impact on the Indian economy. The report states in its preamble that “Cryptocurrencies are a clear danger. Anything that derives value based on make believe, without any underlying, is just speculation under a sophisticated name.
• The RBI on October 07, 2022 issued a Concept Note on Central Bank Digital Currency, available here. This note sets out a detailed proposal by the RBI regarding the rollout of CBDCs in the form of a digital Rupee, the key features of CBDCs and the potential impacts, negative and positive, that the introduction of CBDCs could have in the Indian economy. The note also references cryptocurrencies, commenting on how the proliferation of crypto assets can pose significant risks related to money laundering and financing of terrorism, be a threat to monetary policy objectives and lead to creation of a parallel economy. The note also states that cryptocurrency could adversely affect the enforcement of foreign exchange regulations, especially the circumvention of capital flow measures.

• Conclusion 

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, introduced in 2023, is a significant step in safeguarding individual privacy rights and promoting responsible data management practices. It aims to balance individual rights with legitimate organizational data processing needs, emphasizing the importance of personal data protection. The Act establishes a clear legal framework for digital personal data protection in India, addressing the roles of Data Fiduciaries and Data Principals. It is based on seven key principles, including consent, transparent data use, data minimization, data accuracy, storage limits, and accountability for data breaches. Digital assets, such as networked system assets, software assets, and hardware assets, can create legal challenges as traditional civil rights objects transition into electronic or digital formats. Solutions for digital inheritance include amending existing laws, passing new federal legislation, and enabling users to determine the fate of their digital assets after death.

• REFERENCES 
•  
• [1] Digital  Inheritance  –  Protecting  your  online 
• assets  and  memories By Lindsey  Bohanna, 
• Solicitor and Head of Probate, Wills and Trusts 
• at  Coley  &  Tilley  Solicitors 7th  November 
• 2016. 
• [2] What  You  Should  Know  about  Digital 
• Inheritance, Yogesh Sapkale. 
• [3] Planning your  digital afterlife,  Beryl Menezes, 
• https://www.livemint.com 
• [4] https://support.google.com/accounts/troublesho
• oter/6357590?hl=en 
• [5] Jones, Steve. 2004. 404 not found: The Internet 
• and the  afterlife.” OMEGA –  Journal of  Death 
• and Dying, 49(1), 83–88. 
• [6] Sherlock,  Alexandra.  2013.  Larger  than  life: 
• Digital resurrection and the re-enchantment of 
• society.  The  InformationSociety,  29(3),  164–
• 176. 
• alient Features of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023. (n.d.). https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1947264
• Kharitonova, Y. (2021, February 28). Digital assets and digital Inheritance. ResearchGate. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.24010.08641
• https://academic-accelerator.com/encyclopedia/digital-inheritance
• Kharitonova, Y. (2021, February 28). Digital assets and digital Inheritance. ResearchGate. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.24010.08641