Digital estate: who may request access, preserve data or delete it?

1. Inventory digital items without immediately opening everything

Start with devices, accounts, files, subscriptions and possible digital assets. Notaris.nl distinguishes digital property, debts and identity, among other things. Family photographs need a different action from a webshop, domain name or crypto holding. Record the provider, known account address and reason for investigation or preservation for each item. Include unknown and disputed items visibly.

Build the list from lawfully available records and payment clues. Do not put passwords, recovery codes or secret keys in a shared family spreadsheet or general contact form. The overview should identify where a request belongs, not give everyone technical access. Knowing that a subscription is paid does not establish its contents, transferability or authority to close it.

2. Establish who may act and the scope of the task

Check the will, appointment of an executor, acceptance and the powers of the person acting. Notarial guidance explains that administration may rest with an executor, joint heirs or an authorised representative. Appointments do not all confer the same task. A relative who repaired the laptop or kept the books is not automatically authorised for every digital matter.

Make the intended action specific: preserving data, investigating a bill, ending a subscription or changing a profile. Authority for one act does not automatically permit everything. In disagreement, ask the notary to explain the position and your own inheritance lawyer to assess a genuine conflict. Technical access and entitlement to contents are separate questions.

3. Preserve information that deletion could destroy

Identify data needed for tax, a claim, business continuity or accountability to heirs. Ask the provider about preservation and irreversible decisions. Keep the original request and reply. Do not hastily cancel every paid service if the only business records or relevant evidence could disappear.

Record the state of lawfully available devices and files without unnecessary changes. Where conflict is possible, establish beforehand how copies and originals remain identifiable. Keeping an ordinary family photograph differs from forensic investigation of an entire account. Agree purpose, access and cost: wanting certainty does not justify every relative searching others’ private messages without limits.

4. Use each provider’s actual bereavement procedure

Google describes separate requests to close an account, deal with funds or obtain data. It does not provide passwords or other login details and carefully assesses requests. Applying therefore does not guarantee account access. Ask what documents your particular request needs and submit them officially, explaining the data sought and your position.

Apple describes a Legacy Contact who may request certain data with an access key and death certificate. This does not include everything: purchased films, music and books and iCloud Keychain data are among the exclusions. The designated contact and heir may also be different people. Examine their roles together; Apple’s procedure is not a general rule for all platforms.

5. Separate money, usage rights and personal memories

A balance or digital asset may have a different legal status from an account used only for a service. Ask what the product is: credit, payment account, licence, subscription or storage. Purchase history does not establish that heirs can inherit every usage right without examining terms. Relate any refusal to the specific product and requested act.

Crypto holdings raise separate questions about evidence, storage and secure access. Record a suspected wallet and who lawfully holds information; do not share a recovery phrase with someone merely claiming to help bereaved families. Division and tax valuation require their own expertise. This guide gives no instructions for bypassing security or moving assets into one heir’s personal account.

6. Protect business data and information about others

One account may combine private photographs, customer information, employee data and business contracts. Identify the data needed and who should receive it for that purpose. Do not share an entire mailbox when one invoice or instruction could clarify a dispute. Agree access and accountability, particularly where an heir and a continuing business have different interests.

Use official government representation routes too. For a deceased entrepreneur, the Belastingdienst expressly says heirs cannot log in using the deceased’s DigiD and describes a bereavement authorisation with their own access. That example concerns that tax route; it does not automatically invalidate every other login. It shows why known codes do not replace checking authority and the correct service procedure.

7. Fictional example: preserve photographs without losing the webshop

A daughter wants to delete her deceased father’s account to stop subscriptions. Her brother says it contains the only family photographs, while another person points to customer orders from a small webshop. Nobody has a complete overview or understands the designated Legacy Contact’s role. This example is fictional and does not decide entitlement to information.

They first record accounts, purposes and urgent risks and check who may act for the estate. They then ask the provider about preservation and separate administration. Photographs, business records and stopping payments each need their own decision. If disclosure is blocked or destruction threatened, a lawyer can assess the position and remedy. Sharing the password does not resolve ownership or authority.

8. Checklist for refused access or a family dispute

Request the full refusal reason: a missing document, non-transferable product or different proof of authority? Keep the terms used and application date. Specify the information or action still needed. A general demand for access everywhere is harder to assess than a request fitting your role.

Discuss practical authority with the notary or administrator and disputed entitlement or urgency with a lawyer. Ask how preservation relates to closure and which procedure is actually available. Preparation guarantees neither access nor recovery of deleted data. It identifies technical, contractual and inheritance questions before an irreversible action.

• Prepare an account inventory without publicly shared passwords or recovery phrases.
• Collect the will, authority documents and any Legacy Contact details.
• Specify preservation, receipt, modification or closure for each item.
• Retain requests, refusals and specific data-loss risks.
• Separate plans for money, business information and personal files.