Apple has implemented a new functionality that will allow users to define contacts who will ‘inherit’ their files when they die.
The big problem with making the leap to a digital world is that deciding who will keep your assets is a bit more difficult. For example, if I die, what will happen to all the photos I have taken throughout my life? Traditionally, there would be a physical photo album to pass from one person to another, but the digital world doesn’t work like that. Someone cannot just log into our account, without knowing our password or bypassing security, such as two-step verification.
Apple has come up with a possible solution, which we have already seen in other services. Call it “legacy accounts” (“Legacy Accounts”), and consists of configuring which accounts will be able to access the data of our iCloud account when we die. The option will arrive with the next version of the system, iOS 15.2, and will allow us to configure up to 5 contacts that we trust, such as family or friends.
In the event of death, these contacts may have access to our iCloud data, such as the photos of our smartphone or the files that we have saved; It must be clarified that they will not have access to files that have remained in the memory of the mobile and that we have not uploaded to the Apple cloud. These users will also not be able to view personal data, such as payment information (saved credit cards) or passwords, and will be limited to photos, contacts, and notes saved in iCloud.
Obviously, Apple has had to impose some restrictions to prevent someone from obtaining our photos without permission; not only will they have to provide a correct access code that we have given them, but they will also have to provide a copy of death certificate. Only then will they be able to download a copy of the files from the Apple website, or view them on iCloud; They will also have a time limit, after which the account will be deleted without the possibility of recovering the files.
There are still many details to be resolved about this functionality, such as whether it will be available in Spain; At the moment, everything indicates that it will first be available on the iPhone when the stable version of iOS 15.2 is released at the end of the year.
