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From family photos in the cloud to email archives and social media accounts, the digital lives of Americans are extensive and growing. According to recent studies by the password management companies NordPass and Dashlane, the average internet user maintains more than 150 online accounts. Individuals produce hundreds of gigabytes of data each year. But few people have plans for what happens to that digital legacy after they die. Unlike physical possessions, online assets often dont pass smoothly from one generation to the next. Loved ones struggle to access important accounts or recover treasured photos. Many families face these challenges while already overwhelmed with grief. Most tech companies havent kept up with this reality. Fewer than 15% of popular online platforms have clear systems for handling a users death, and customer support is often limited, according to our new study. As peoples digital footprints expand, the lack of planning has become both a practical and emotional burden for families. This is especially true for older adults who may not be aware of the steps required to manage their digital estate. We are an associate professor of information science and a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. We are researching how to design technologies for people engaged in end-of-life planning for their data. First clinic of its kind We realized there was no organization or comprehensive website to help people navigate the technical, privacy, or practical challenges they were facing. In response, we launched what we believe is a first-of-its-kind solution: the Digital Legacy Clinic. Just as writing a will helps manage physical possessions after death, planning your digital legacy ensures that your online life is handled according to your wishes. Our clinic opened in late 2024. The free clinic offers support both to people planning for the end of their digital lives and to those managing the digital estates of loved ones who have died. Led by students and housed in the University of Colorado Boulders information science department, the clinic operates much like a pro bono law clinic. Community members in the Denver and Boulder areas, as well as from across the country, can contact the clinic for help. First, a person interested in getting support fills out a simple form. Then, a member of the clinic will send a follow-up email to clarify and offer preliminary advice. Since every case is different, often clinic workers will then meet via Zoom with a client to create a personalized plan for them and their family. How the clinic helps The clinic offers guidance on a wide range of digital estate concerns, including setting up digital legacy tools such as trusted contacts on Google and Apple or legacy contacts on Facebooksomeone you choose to manage your main profile after youve died. People can also get guidance on how to memorialize or delete social media or other online accounts after a loved one has died. For example, Facebook allows you to either memorialize an account or request its removal. To memorialize it, youll need to submit a form with the persons name; date of death; proof of passing, such as an obituary; and verify your relationship to the deceased. Including these steps can help your loved ones manage a digital legacy with clarity and care. The clinic also helps people recover and preserve digital assets. That includes photos, videos, emails, and other important documents, such as legal documents stored on a Google Drive. For those who are planning for after they die, the clinic can guide them in creating a digital estate plan. That plan might include inventorying online accounts, documenting login credentials, and leaving instructions for account closure, or determining steps to email the documents to your lawyer. Students supporting their community The ongoing work of the clinic is run entirely by undergraduate and graduate students, who build and maintain the clinics website, manage the client intake process, and research solutions tailored to each case. For the students, its a hands-on learning opportunity that connects academic work to real-world needs. The experience is also professionally valuable. Students learn how to communicate complex tech topics with empathy, navigate privacy laws, and manage sensitive data responsibly. A resource for older adults While the Digital Legacy Clinic is available to people across the country, its location in Boulder makes it especially accessible to older adults in the Boulder and Denver areas who may prefer or benefit from in-person support. For older adults, the clinic can play a crucial role in helping them organize their digital lives while theyre still alive. This can reduce confusion for loved ones later and even help prevent issues such as identity theft or account misuse. Many older adults now maintain extensive online presences, but they may not have the tools or knowledge to ensure their accounts are secure and accessible to people they trust. Dylan Thomas Doyle is an information science researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. Jed R. Brubaker is an associate professor of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Women athletes who want to start a family have often received little to no support or faced repercussions. Remember when, back in 2019, Olympic runners Allyson Felix, Alysia Montao, and Kara Goucher shared that Nike, their sponsor, said it would stop paying them if they werent runningeven during pregnancy and postpartum. It wasn’t until after the women called out the company in The New York Times that Nike instituted a new maternity policy. Women basketball players, soccer players, and other athletes across sports have also shared their negative experiences as expecting or new mothers and their fight for change. So its deeply heartening when progress occurs, like a new policy championed by players at the Womens Tennis Association (WTA). The organizing body for womens tennis has announced the Fertility Protection Special Entry Ranking Rule, which protects the ranking of women who undergo procedures like embryo or egg freezing. After hearing from players that the option of fertility protection offers a proactive way to balance family goals and career ambitions, were delighted that this new measure, alongside the fertility grant offered by the PIF WTA Maternity Fund, will contribute to enabling our athletes to realize their full potential and become parents at a time of their choice, said Portia Archer, CEO of the WTA, in a statement. (PIF stands for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.) How the new rule will work Athletes will qualify if they leave for at least 10 weeks to undergo the treatment and are ranked between Nos. 1 and 750 in singles or doubles. They will then receive a special entry ranking (SER) based on the 12-week average of their WTA ranking from eight weeks prior to the start of their out-of-competition period, the WTA states. Players can use the ranking for up to three tournaments. The WTA, founded by Billie Jean King, already offers ranking protection for pregnant individuals or those pursuing another form of parenthood. In March, the organization introduced 12-month paid maternity leave for athletestechnically independent contractorsand two months for adoption, a partners pregnancy, or surrogacy. The WTA claims its the first instance in womens sports history that comprehensive maternity benefits are available to independent, self-employed athletes. However, they must meet specific qualifications, such as participating in a certain number of tournaments. The WTA simultaneously introduced grants for fertility treatments.
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E-Commerce
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who heads the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has announced eight new members to the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committeesome who are critical of vaccinesafter firing the entire group, prompting questions and concerns. Kennedy said the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be at ACIP’s upcoming meeting on June 25 to June 27, which is slated to discuss vaccine recommendations for the HPV vaccine (which the CDC has deemed safe, and prevents cervical cancer and 90% of cancers caused by HPV in females), and of course the COVID-19 vaccine. Those new members are: Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W. Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth, and Michael A. Rosssome of whom are either close allies of RFK Jr. or vaccine skeptics, according to the BBC. Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and biostatistician, helped write the Great Barrington Declaration, which questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic, per National Public Radio; while Malone worked on mRNA technology for the COVID-19 vaccine early on, then became a critic and made false claims about the shot, also per NPR. Wednesday’s move comes just days after Kennedy fired all 17 sitting members of the ACIP, which makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy, and clinical need for the shots, advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the vaccine schedule and required coverage of immunizations. While Kennedy justified the firings, saying in a Wall Street Journal op-ed the panel of esteemed pediatricians, epidemiologists, immunologists, and other physicians was plagued with conflicts of interest, that’s questionable. As Fast Company has previously reported, Kennedy has a long history of repeatedly making false claims that have been debunked, and railing against or ranting about vaccines, medical drugs, the health system, and our nations food. RFK Jr. also has no medical degree, breaking with long-standing tradition for the health secretary post, and his nomination was the latest in a string of controversial picks by Trump for his second term.
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