iOS 15 Lets Your Family Access Your Data If You Die

With iOS 15, Apple is introducing a new Digital Legacy program that designates people as Legacy Contacts to let them access your Apple ID account and personal information in the event of your death.

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This feature does not appear to be live at the current time, but based on Apple's description, it will give your friends or family members access to your photos and other important data after your death. This is an important new addition to iOS because right now, if someone passes away with a locked iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it's difficult if not impossible to get access to the device, even with access to a death certificate.

Digital Legacy will let your loved ones manage your data to get access to key accounts and personal items like photos that would otherwise be lost.

Management of digital data after death is something that Apple has been lacking, and with so much data online, it's become an increasingly important topic. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have tools for setting legacy contacts that can archive an account, and Google maintains an Inactive Account Manager that releases control of an account to a designated person after a set period of time.

Alongside the Digital Legacy program, Apple is also letting users set Account Recovery Contacts. People set as an Account Recovery Contact will be able to help you regain access to your ‌Apple ID‌ should you forget your password.

Both of these features will be available when iOS 15 launches this fall.

Related Forum: iOS 15

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Top Rated Comments

countryside Avatar
53 months ago
Can we have it automatically delete select things?
Score: 74 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Brookzy Avatar
53 months ago
*when.
Score: 66 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bsamcash Avatar
53 months ago
Another reason for my family to kill me.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
stemac75 Avatar
53 months ago
This will honestly be so useful. My wife passed away suddenly last year, aged 40. We shared a car - that she sorted everything for, she booked our family's holiday that I had to try to cancel, I had to find contacts of hers and let them know she had died, etc. I've been able to buy gifts for the children that she had chosen and saved in her Amazon account while she was in hospital. She also had some great photos of forgotten family days out, so we now have those positive memories again. We had a totally honest and open relationship so knew each others passwords for everything, so I've been able to access her phone and data - but if I didn't, it would have made sorting out some of those problems a lot more difficult at an already difficult time.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gsmornot Avatar
53 months ago

Can we have it automatically delete select things?
When you're gone I think it will be ok for your skeletons to be set free. Ha.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Complex757 Avatar
53 months ago
I think a self destruct feature where it automatically wipes your phone and history would be more useful
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)