The ontology of digital asset after death: policy complexities, suggestions and critique of digital platforms

Published date06 December 2019
Pages1-14
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-04-2019-0030
Date06 December 2019
AuthorYong Jin Park,Yoonmo Sang,Hoon Lee,S. Mo Jones-Jang
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy
The ontology of digital asset after death:
policy complexities, suggestions and
critique of digital platforms
Yong Jin Park, Yoonmo Sang, Hoon Lee and S. Mo Jones-Jang
Abstract
Purpose The digitization of the life has brought complexities associated with addressing digital life
after one’s death. This paper aims to investigate the two related issues of the privacy and property of
postlifedigital assets.
Design/methodology/approach The understanding of digital assets has not been fully unpacked
largely due to the current policy complexities in accessing and obtaining digital assets at death. This
paper calls critical attention to the importance of respecting user rights in digital environments that
currentlyfavor service providers’ interests.
Findings It is argued that there are ethical blind spots when protecting users’ rights, given no
ontological differencebetween a person’s digital beings and physical existence. These derive from the
restrictivecorporate terms and ambiguous conditionsdrafted by digital service providers.
Originality/value Fundamentally, the transition to the big data era, in which the collection, use and
dissemination of digitalactivities became integral part of the ontology, poses new challengesto privacy
and propertyrights after death.
Keywords Privacy, Data ethics, Digital remain, Privacy and property rights, Postlife digitalization,
Data ethics
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
The public debate on the digital management of one’s assets after death has hardly
commenced. The digitization of our life has brought far more complex new challenges. Our
daily lives have increasingly revolved around the internet and algorithmic digital
environment and we are now living in so-called the “big data” era in which we virtually leave
traces of the entirety of our livesin digital form. When a person leaves behind digital assets,
however, we do have a little clue about whatwould happen to those assets after death. The
issue is more than the protection of monetary values, as it also concerns one’s memories,
dignities and more importantly,the respect over identities associated with life.
This paper dissects these challenges and explores the nature of societal responsibility in
defining user rights to exercise control over digital traces and assets, such as social
networking sites and e-mail accounts, beyond the point of death. The issues that we are
raising are twofold:
1. Privacy; and
2. property rights of postlife digital assets.
These are intertwined issues, which will never be mutually exclusive, but we treat them as
two separate issues for analytical purposes. The analysis undertaken in this paper
Yong Jin Park is based at
the School of
Communications, Howard
University, Washington,
District of Columbia, USA.
Yoonmo Sang is based at
the Faculty of Arts and
Design, University of
Canberra, Canberra,
Australia. Hoon Lee is
based at the Department of
Journalism and
Communication, Kyung
Hee University, Seoul,
Republic of Korea.
S. Mo Jones-Jang is based
at the Department of
Communication, Boston
College, Chestnut Hill,
Massachusetts, USA.
Received 10 April 2019
Revised 2 July 2019
25 August 2019
12 October 2019
Accepted 8 November 2019
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-04-2019-0030 VOL. 22 NO. 1 2020, pp. 1-14, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 1

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