Google wants to make sure that your data is deleted or transferred to the right person when you die. To accomplish that goal, the company is offering the new Inactive Account Manager. The platform can be setup to automatically delete a user’s data after a set period of inactivity or to hand over data from Google-powered services to user-specified accounts.
Users can pick their time period for inactivity by choosing a period of three, six, nine, or twelve months.
When a user is one month away from missing their time limit, Google sends a reminder that they must log-in or lose their data.
Google announced the move on its Public Policy blog and stated that only data is transfered and not the actual account. If you missed your deadline, you still have access to the account if you haven’t chosen to have it deleted.
Data can be pulled from the account by users through various Google account types including Blogger, Google Drive, Gmail, Google+ Profiles, Pages, Streams, Picasa Web Albums, Google Voice, and YouTube.
The Google Inactive Account Manager is one of the more advanced ways we have seen for dealing with death. Facebook offers a memorialization service for deceased user accounts, but users must request that service, and it is simply freezing the user’s Facebook account in time. Twitter will deactivate a deceased users account after mail and fax information is sent to Twitter headquarters.
Here is a screencast of the Google Inactive Account Manager:
Are you going to use the Google Inactive Account Manager to ensure your data falls into the right hands or is deleted after your death?
