Kim Komando Daily Tech Update
Kim Komando Daily Tech Update

How to set up your digital legacy

6 min
•Jan 8, 20263 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Kim Komando discusses digital legacy planning, focusing on how families can access digital accounts after someone passes away. The episode includes practical steps for setting up legacy contacts on phones and covers a caller's struggle to recover her deceased daughter's deleted Facebook profile.

Insights
  • Digital legacy planning is often overlooked but critical for family access to accounts after death
  • Major tech platforms have different processes and timelines for handling deceased users' accounts
  • Scammers exploit grieving families by posing as platform support representatives
  • Business advertising relationships with platforms can provide better customer service access than standard support channels
  • Digital memories and content can be permanently lost without proper legacy planning
Trends
Increasing importance of digital estate planning as more life moves onlineGrowing sophistication of scams targeting vulnerable users seeking platform supportPlatform policies around deceased user accounts becoming more complexBusiness customers receiving preferential support access over individual users
Quotes
"If something happened to you tomorrow, could your family access your digital life? Your bank accounts, emails, crypto photos, all of it."
Kim Komando
"Independent testing by Passmark software ranked Webroot 1 in performance, beating names you know like Norton, McAfee and Bitdefender."
Kim Komando
"her profile is totally gone, totally deleted. And every comment and every picture and everything she ever shared on this."
Laura
"we buy ads on Facebook, and when we buy ads on Facebook is that we have access to a business center. And when you have access to a business center, you. You have access to a human being."
Kim Komando
Full Transcript
3 Speakers
Speaker A

Hi, Kim Commando here. Well, first up we have your digital life hack. And after that I'm going to play a call for my weekend national radio show. This is not a happy topic, but it's so important. If something happened to you tomorrow, could your family access your digital life? Your bank accounts, emails, crypto photos, all of it. I'm Kim Commando for NetSuite. AI is here and companies using it are getting ahead. Download the free business guide demystifying AI right now@netsuite.com Kim. Your first move, add a legacy contact to your phone. This person gets access to everything after you're gone. Text, photos, videos, notes, call history, email, the works on iPhone. Go to settings and search legacy contact on Android or Google. Search for inactive account manager. In your settings, you can add up to 10 people, choose exactly what they see, say only photos and not your email or your entire drive. And you can also decide how long Google waits before reaching out. But there's more that you need to do. To get the full guide on setting up your entire digital legacy, head to my website, kommando.com that's K-O-M-A-N d o.com Next up, a call for my weekend show, the Kim Commando Show. Enjoy. As we head into a new year, I want you to start at protected not frustrated by slow, bloated, antiquated antivirus software. I've tested a lot of security tools over the years. You need one that keeps up with the times. Webroot Essentials is the antivirus security software. I recommend. Listen to these results. Independent testing by Passmark software ranked Webroot 1 in performance, beating names you know like Norton, McAfee and Bitdefender. Webroot scans six times faster, uses five times less memory, and takes up 33 times less space. That means real protection without slowing down your computer. I've seen it myself. The difference is immediate. Webroot Essentials protects against viruses, ransomware, phishing, and more. It works on PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones, even Chromebooks. So all your devices are covered right now. Save 75% on Webroot essentials@webroot.com Kim this 75% offer is exclusive for my listeners only. Go to webroot.com Kim live a better digital life with Webroot Laura in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Glad to have you with us, Laura. How can I lend a hand?

0:00

Speaker B

I appreciate you talking to me and listen. I just love all the nuggets of wisdom that you share all the time. I enjoy listening to your show and what you can share with us.

2:18

Speaker A

Oh, thank you.

2:27

Speaker B

So I called because I heard. I heard a show a while back, and you. It had to do with Facebook. And the culmination of it was you gave out a phone number for the caller to try to get in touch with Facebook. And the reason why I'm seeking that phone number is my daughter passed away in January of 20. I'm sorry, it takes. Thank you. I appreciate that. It takes about. It depends on where you live. But it took us about six weeks to get the death certificate. So around March, April, May. Around May, we. I memorialized her account because in order to do that with Facebook, you have to prove, you know, that kind of thing, which worked fine. Had no problems with that. Worked fine. It wasn't until probably October, when the holidays start ramping up, that I'm, you know, scrolling through Facebook and looking for her comments that she's made and those kind of things, and nothing showing up. And so did some more digging, and her profile is totally gone, totally deleted. And every comment and every picture and everything she ever shared on this.

2:28

Speaker A

Was it taken over or it was deleted?

3:40

Speaker B

It's deleted. Well, you can't find it. You cannot find it. So I did some research, found some. Found some email addresses, found some which didn't result in anything. Found went through Meta and the Facebook links for connecting with people. Sidebar on that. Just a warning, if you didn't know about this, there can be scams within those links. One of them was they worked with me up until they talk. We talked about what's going on. They suggested that it had been hacked. And so Facebook removed it and they could get it back. But then when they said, but we need access to Venmo to. And for you to deposit a dollar.

3:43

Speaker A

Yeah, okay. All right, let's.

4:33

Speaker B

I said, no, never mind.

4:34

Speaker A

Let's. Let me. Let me try to help you. Let me try to help you. I will give you the phone number. I don't have it right in front of me while I'm doing the show, but we will get you that phone number. There's also appeals. Let me give you a couple of email addresses. Appeals. Fb.com, disabledb.com I don't know if those still work, but they used to for a while. Now I can do one solid. Better for you, Laura, is that we buy ads on Facebook, and when we buy ads on Facebook is that we have access to a business center. And when you have access to a business center, you. You have access to a human being. Yes. So I'm gonna try to work with you on that too. If you have the address, make sure you give it to Matty who's screening and we'll see if we can get that back. Oh my gosh. A human at Facebook. I know. I don't think those existed. Hey, want to stay in the tech now without wasting your time? Join nearly a million folks who get my free newsletter, the Current where you see the latest in tech in just five minutes every single day. You're just gonna love it. It has a five out of five star rating over on Trustpilot. Sign up right now@getkim.com that's getkim.com Martha.

4:35

Speaker C

Listens to her favorite band all the time. In the car, gym, even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much, she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you more Expedia made to travel Savings vary and subject to availability. Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.

5:43