Death (?) Online
OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat
Haryana, India
Volume-1, Issue-2, 2018
“The digital age has changed the notion about “self” in terms of both exemplifying the existing identities and creating new ones. With the increasing number of users availing digital technology, the data uploading and downloading data has become a part of the everyday life. However, the question about the inheritance of digital assets remains unresolved in terms its legal and social dimensions. The paper seeks to analyse the existing company mechanisms of ‘handling’ digital estate post death. Further, it seeks to examine the debate on digital inheritance in context of right to privacy in India in reference to two central questions- (1) Does a deceased have right to privacy; and (2) How the right (if any) of the deceased can be protected? It proposes a need for legislation and provides certain propositions to balance right to privacy and digital inheritance in such legislation.