People use the Internet for countless reasons, ranging from posting thoughts and pictures onto blogs, to keeping up with friends and family, and even maintaining bank accounts and credit card balances. As we go through our lives we create vast amounts of data, which is in form of digital assets which may include include financial accounts, documents, e-mail, social media websites, music and photographs, to name a few. These digital assets may include some very personal and private items such as medical and financial information, personal notes to loved ones, personal diaries or writings about loved ones, photographs or drawings of loved ones, business plans, trade secrets and other items not meant, nor appropriate, for public disclosure. All the aforesaid information or data amounts to digital assets, which raise a very interesting question:   what will happen to those digital assets when a person dies?

There are many organizations, Legacy Locker, Thinkup.com, Bcelebrated.com to name few, which now offer services for preserving the digital assets and passing it over to the legitimate owner in case of the death of the owner of the digital assets. Many email sites and social networking societies have their own policies & rules to pass on the digital assets of the deceased to their heirs or other legitimate claimants. The legislatures in USA have realized the importance of giving family members, friends & relatives, the control to the on-line accounts or digital assets of the deceased and few states in USA have passed the relevant legislations.

"Digital Afterlife can be understood as maintaining or transforming digital content of users present in the web-space according to users will in case of users deceased or incapability of operating their personal accounts which are considered to be a virtual representation of users in the web platforms. The user generated content can be termed as digital footprints in the cyberspace, the process also generates mass of internet users and wide range of issues of legalizing and transforming content right of users under social medias and web-based services."

One digital data needs to be protected through a convincing means in order to protect a legacy existing in future. Digital data can be valuable for legal, researches, scientific, commercial and non-commercial purposes. Thus, the data needs protection providing systematic information base for future generations. Digital afterlife concept is also getting popular in growing economies like India as well where a businessman is being reported making a digital will.

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