The Importance of Establishing a Legacy Contact
Just recently, we here at Compu-Experts had to assist a customer who unexpectedly lost their spouse in a sudden manner. After the initial shock of that spouse’s death, dealing with children, grandchildren, and family and friends in the weeks and months to come, and the energy and effort it takes into planning a memorial service, sometimes the toughest road ahead is dealing with the mundane but necessary things about our daily lives, especially if the deceased spouse is the one who handled the household finances and monthly bills.
Of course, it’s important for each spouse to know certain things about the other’s digital life. Things such as passcodes to enter a phone or tablet, or important passwords for banking, investments, and utility companies that provide electric, water, cable, and internet, etc., are important things for both spouses to know at any given time. However, I want to discuss a peculiar situation and share a solution that I hope readers will make a priority after reading this newsletter.
With technology being a critical and everyday part of our lives, security and protecting your personal data is always being challenged everyday by hackers who want access to your data – mainly for a financial gain on their part – perhaps to use an online account to purchase something for themselves, use your identity to open themselves a line of credit in your name or, more commonly, get you to pay for some bogus service with gift cards, which once given to them, cannot be refunded or reimbursed. As the technology has improved, passwords and passcodes have taken over our lives. Apple and other companies have leaned into Biometric Identification methods – fingerprint recognition and facial recognition (Face ID) to authenticate a person instead of having to always enter a password. Many folks are now comfortable using Face ID, but what if a spouse passes away, like the instance we dealt with a few months back? If that spouse had enabled Face ID, would there be any problems gaining access to their data? The short answer is – YES!
To make a long story short, even though the widowed spouse knew of the passwords and passcodes to enter the deceased’s devices, there were certain things on the phone that were only accessible by authenticating with Face ID – and since that person was no longer alive, this posed to be a serious challenge, as you would imagine. The only solution to deal with that after the fact was to visit an Apple Store and present a death certificate, which Apple would have to review, and the entire process could take weeks or months for Apple to “unlock” the device and remove the Face ID feature of the phone. In helping this customer and dealing directly with Apple, their suggestion was to make use of the “Legacy Contact” feature built into Apple products.
A “Legacy Contact” is simple, takes minutes to set up, and may be extremely helpful to spouses, children, or other family members in the case of your unexpected passing. Here’s what you need to do:
1) On your Apple Device (an iPhone or iPad), navigate to Settings, then press your name at the top of the screen, and then go to Sign In and Security.
2) Scroll down near the bottom and look for Legacy Contact and press it.
3) Press Add Legacy Contact and choose the person you wish to designate. Consider spouses, children, and grandchildren. You can choose more than one person to be a Legacy Contact.
4) A Private Access Key will be generated electronically, and you have the option to send the key to the contact electronically via text message, or print the key out and give a hard copy to that person.
That’s really about all the work you have to do to set up this process. Again, you are ensuring that the person who might have to deal with the ramifications of your death has an easier process to go through to access your information.
My best guess is that most people, myself included, have not taken the time to complete this simple and potentially important task related to what I call a person’s “Digital Life”. A person’s digital life may not have the same impact as their human life and presence here on Earth, but it should not go unnoticed as we progress further along in this life, with the impact and importance computers play in daily life.
We’ll be back soon with another newsletter discussing any and all things Tech! Until then, Happy Spring!
-Submitted by Chad Droze, chad@compu-experts.com