Digital legacy

Accounts carry on after their owner dies, and every recovery process is designed specifically to stop somebody else getting in.

That protection is right until the person trying is a bereaved family member, at which point it becomes a wall. Photographs, messages, subscriptions still taking money, accounts that cannot be closed because nobody can prove anything. The systems are working as intended and the outcome is still awful. The only thing that reliably helps is deciding in advance: the legacy contact settings the big platforms now offer, and somewhere trusted that records what exists and how to reach it.