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You're talking about the "Bus envelope". Pick a person, a trusted loved one or family member likely to survive you, and let them know where those written instr

You're talking about the "Bus envelope". Pick a person, a trusted loved one or family member likely to survive you, and let them know where those written instructions are. It's well within the remit of existing lawyers and I advise you involve one. Wills are standard documents. If there are time-critical actions make it a legal instrument that precedes any transfer of responsibility to an executor (who may not end up being the trusted party you designated and probate can drag on for years in complex cases. Yes it's a security risk because you'll need to write some things down including passwords. Tell them a password in advance that they'll never forget and anticipate that they may be in shock or unable to follow complex time-critical instructions at the time. Use a unique shared secret like "Remember what that bird was singing when it sat on the balcony on our honeymoon night?" Many people in service are required to leave a "professional will". Clients need to be informed. Debts paid. Records destroyed (there are many legitimate circumstances for this). And god willing, it never happens for you.

pards 5y ago
Naming an Executor on one's will is standard but the responsibilities balloon when one expands the role to cover digital assets. My password manager contains over 400 entries. Going through each one and requesting account closures from each individual site would take years. I don't want to burden my loved ones with that chore.
- nonrandomstring 5y ago
  I understand. A dead man's handle seems to be what you're looking for. You want a cron script on a well secured VPS that will de-alloc and garbage collect your whole life if you don't check in every month or so.
  - pards 5y ago
    Yes, this is what it amounts to. Maybe Europe's "right to be forgotten" laws will make this easier to automate in the future.
    - nonrandomstring 5y ago
      Agreed. You'd definitely need some prescribed technical measures that only strong laws could enact. The stumbling block would always be that what you want is a "Delete it all, right now, and don't argue" remote API call. No commercial provider will ever give you this at present. Practically every line of code running online services is designed to avoid that and do the exact opposite. The only practical solution I can see is that you somehow obtain a certificate that allows that capability and keep it _very_ _safe_. Nonetheless, there will be some people who let their "digital self-destruct" cert get loose and then complain when a prankster deletes them. This problem adds weight to the idea that it's better to manage your own digital affairs, then it's as simple as @monthly "if [ ! -f "$STILLALIVE" ]; then ssh me@myhost find ~ -type f -exec shred {} +; fi"

pards 5y ago

Naming an Executor on one's will is standard but the responsibilities balloon when one expands the role to cover digital assets. My password manager contains over 400 entries. Going through each one and requesting account closures from each individual site would take years. I don't want to burden my loved ones with that chore.

nonrandomstring 5y ago
I understand. A dead man's handle seems to be what you're looking for. You want a cron script on a well secured VPS that will de-alloc and garbage collect your whole life if you don't check in every month or so.
- pards 5y ago
  Yes, this is what it amounts to. Maybe Europe's "right to be forgotten" laws will make this easier to automate in the future.
  - nonrandomstring 5y ago
    Agreed. You'd definitely need some prescribed technical measures that only strong laws could enact. The stumbling block would always be that what you want is a "Delete it all, right now, and don't argue" remote API call. No commercial provider will ever give you this at present. Practically every line of code running online services is designed to avoid that and do the exact opposite. The only practical solution I can see is that you somehow obtain a certificate that allows that capability and keep it _very_ _safe_. Nonetheless, there will be some people who let their "digital self-destruct" cert get loose and then complain when a prankster deletes them. This problem adds weight to the idea that it's better to manage your own digital affairs, then it's as simple as @monthly "if [ ! -f "$STILLALIVE" ]; then ssh me@myhost find ~ -type f -exec shred {} +; fi"