The Guardian came out with a story named When I’m dead, how will my loved ones break my password?. Basically, it handles the same problem as my own Online Will idea the same way snail mail and email handle the same problem.
Here’s a quote of the proposed solution from the article. The 8 readers of this blog may find it familiar :)
Finally, I hit on a simple solution: I’d split the passphrase in two, and give half of it to my wife, and the other half to my parents’ lawyer in Toronto. The lawyer is out of reach of a British court order, and my wife’s half of the passphrase is useless without the lawyer’s half (and she’s out of reach of a Canadian court order). If a situation arises that demands that my lawyer get his half to my wife, he can dictate it over the phone, or encrypt it with her public key and email it to her, or just fly to London and give it to her.
As simple as this solution is, it leaves a few loose ends: first, what does my wife do to safeguard her half of the key should she perish with me? The answer is to entrust it to a second attorney in the UK (I can return the favour by sending her key to my lawyer in Toronto). Next, how do I transmit the key to the lawyer? I’ve opted for a written sheet of instructions, including the key, that I will print on my next visit to Canada and physically deliver to the lawyer.
P.S.
Thanks to blog reader rom for pointing the story out to me.
1. What made you think about an online will?
2. After thinking about it what made you develop it to that extent?
3. You should really think of a device imaging one’s thoughts and playing them on TV
1. I just thought about what would happen to all my accounts if I die.
2. I’m an engineer… if there’s an interesting problem I’m inclined to try and find a (general) solution
3. Right… I said “interesting” :)
Thanks.