Don't take your passwords to the grave

[FLPanhandle]

"If you die or become incapacitated without sharing the keys to your digital life, your family could face a huge ordeal trying to manage your affairs. They could be cut off from money to pay your bills, and they might not even know which bills need to be paid. They might not discover some accounts exist if you've gone paperless. They would likely have to go to court to win access to your financial accounts, then face skeptical customer-service representatives who may not accept their authority."

If you die, your family could be left with a traumatizing mess. They may have to scramble for cash to pay for your funeral and their own living expenses, if they're your dependents. If they can't track down all of your accounts, some of the money you intended for them might wind up in some state's unclaimed-property fund.

And that's just on the financial end. Your family could be cut off from other important digital files, including:

* Photo and music collections stored online.
* Calendars and address books.
* E-mail and social-networking accounts, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
* Security and wireless-networking software.

http://money.msn.com/retirement-plan/do-not-take-passwords-to-the-grave-weston.aspx

Interesting point that with so much online now, there are few paper trails for people to follow.

[Sherman A1]

1. It's a good point to remember,

I have mine stored in a mayo jar on the porch.

[RandomThoughts]

2. On the topic of 'people being cut off' function not data.

I am in an opposite situation, I am against arranged marriages when things are not corrected. And an uncorrected situation is the only reason for 'arranged' situations. Basically been turning down relationships for years, since things have to be corrected first.

Although I know how that can work, both negative and positive charisma put on people. Been done around me so much I can understand it now. Although for years seen mostly positive Charisma, there was an attempt of neg charisma, but that was to move my choice to a different area. And that pisses me off.

I think that is why shows like Harrison Bergeron had the 'matching' in it. Why it was in the Prisoner, why it was in Babylon 5, and many other places.

[tridim]

3. Who gets the porn collection?

[FLPanhandle]

6. OK, maybe some passwords should follow you to the grave.

:)

[Sonoman]

7. Just send me your passwords, tridim.

I swear, I will protect them with my life.

Sonoman

[RandomThoughts]

4. On the topic of 'cut off' function not data.

I am in an opposite situation of that, I am against arranged marriages when things are not corrected. And an uncorrected situation is the only reason for 'arranged' situations. Basically been turning down relationships for years, since things have to be corrected first.

Although I know how that can work, both negative and positive charisma put on people. Been done around me so much I can understand it now. Although for years seen mostly positive Charisma, there was an attempt of neg charisma, but that was to move my choice to a different area. And that pisses me off.

I think that is why shows like Harrison Bergeron had the 'matching' in it. Why it was in the Prisoner, why it was in Babylon 5, and many other places.

[Liquorice]

5. If you use a form filler like Roboform, all the passwords can be retrieved automatically. nt

[xxqqqzme]

8. My kids & I went through

this when their Dad died 8 years ago. The kids knew he had instructions for his ashes but he had both his computers protected. We never found the instructions.

[high density]

9. Well...

If I'm dead, I guess I don't really care if my family can figure out my financial affairs. Any money I've left is a waste since I should've bought whatever with it and enjoyed something else while I was alive.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to leave the password and instructions somewhere for my KeePass database, which has all of my login info.

[Urban Prairie]

10. I have a 3 x 5 card file arranged alphabetically of all my SNs and passwords

of every website that I registered on since the first day that I ever went online.

I have over a dozen email addresses, all based on individual subjects/hobbies, for example, two are dedicated solely for politics, one liberal, one conservative, the latter due to my belief in the old saying of "keeping your friends close and your enemies closer". Another address is exclusively for technical/geek information, like OSes, computer user websites, science magazines, ect... Yet another is just devoted to music that I like, and the band/group websites that I registered on, that send me updates and messages. One of my ISP's supplied email addresses contains only my accounts for banking, eBay, Amazon, Paypal, credit card and payment information for utilities.

By organizing/creating them by subject and having always made certain that my email addresses that I created have included several numbers and/or special characters in the middle of a mostly alphabetic email address, I have managed to keep most of them relatively spam-free.

[spanone]

11. great advice