Posted on 05/31/2016 7:31:48 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Writing your will and making an estate plan no longer just involves who gets your money and your physical possessions after you die. Now it will also include who gets your pictures, e-mails and other data stored on your smartphone, desktop computer or in a cloud.
"You can specifically say I want folks to have access to my digital account or I don't," says Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center. Hilstrom authored a bill to help Minnesotans preserve their "digital assets" after they die. The governor signed the legislation into law as part of a larger bill dealing with probate issues.
"This actually says you...have the right to treat your digital assets, so your Twitter account, your Facebook account, your pictures account, as if it was like any other of your assets," Hilstrom says.
Under the new law, you can write it into your will or power of attorney that you want your assets passed along to someone you choose. Conversely, you can also write into your will that you don't want anyone to have access to your digital data.
Hilstrom worked on the legislation for two years after the idea was brought to her by Bill and Kristi Anderson of Orono. Their 19-year old son Jacob died in December 2013 and his body was found along the Mississippi River near the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. Police ruled foul play wasn't suspected, but the Andersons still want answers.
"Was he abducted? Did he get lost," Kristi Anderson asked rhetorically at a hearing in the Minnesota House in 2015. "We don't know, but we think his cell phone could possibly contain some of those answers."
The Anderson's own the phone and and it's in their name, but it belonged to Jake and only he knew the passcode. Apple would not give it to them under existing law. Unfortunately for the Anderson's, the new law is not retroactive so it's still unclear whether it will help them gain access.
Minnesota is among the first states to enact such a digital access law. Supporters of the idea are trying to get uniform state laws passed across the country.
WOOHOO!
Digits are also your fingers ...
How do you protect “assets” not owned by you?
And toes.
If you don’t own assets, they’re not yours.
This law didn’t stop MS from installing Win10 on my computer against my wishes.
Kind of my point. Unless you own the servers, you don’t “own” the content.
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