LIFE AFTER DEATH - DIGITALLY

Where do you leave your digital footprint on a daily basis?

Answer:  All over the planet if you're using any of the following: SmartPhone, Social Network (ie.Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Sina), Search Engine (ie. Google, Bing, Baidu), 
Music Forum  (iTunes etc.), Media Streaming, Video Download (Pay-per-view), Photo Sharing Sites, On-line Gaming, eReader and On-line Purchases.

Not only do you leave your footprint but you leave information about your needs, desires, and motivators, in addition to your age, gender,  facial characteristics, income level, race, and other very valuable information and data about yourself.  This info is shared, mined, and stored (indefinitely) and used to market, sell, and promote products and services which are personalized and customized to your particular set of  characteristics.  You know, it's the "since you bought this book, you might also be interested in this stool and rope" or something like that. 

So, if you think you are "under the wire", think again.. And the more you use the internet the more data is available on you, your environment, social circles, etc. etc.  It's not Big Brother it's Big Marketing.  You see  promotions and ads  in emails to you, your favorite sites, on your searches, etc. and they are all saying one thing to you - GIVE ME YOUR MONEY !

Your Footprints Aren't Yours

Yes, all of those pics, tweets, posts, and emails you so fastidiously spent time on are not yours in death.  That's right,  unless they are copyrighted, your heirs have no right to your (in the cloud) "property".  Hmmmm, so all of those great pics you had on Shutter Fly are resident on  a lifeless server in the digital domain for eternity - but no one has access to them.  The Cloud is good, but like all clouds,  eventually vanishes into thin air and you are left with nothing.

There are on-going legal battles to determine what an individual's cyber rights to their musings, pics, and other information (personal or otherwise) might be after death, but as it stands right now there are no legal rights to that property.

Moral of the story.  If you have something you want to keep for value or personal reasons don't put it in cyber space.   Now, where is my old Kodak 35mm camera and film?

Best and Happy Movie Going!
Jim Lavorato