OpenID Foundation proposes framework to manage digital estates

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) has proposed a framework that outlines standards for digital estates, and published a Digital Estate Planning Guide for advisers and their clients.

The whitepaper highlighted fragmented policies and legal gaps that could leave billions of online assets inaccessible or exposed after death.

It called for coordinated action across governments, technology providers, and standards bodies to manage digital estates, aiming to address what happens to digital accounts when people die.

While cryptocurrency, email accounts, social media profiles and connected devices regularly outlive their owners, there is no consistent global standards to ensure they are accessible and protected after the owner dies.

The OIDF noted that approaches from platforms and governments varied, while the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) was adding urgency to the need for collaboration.

In light of these concerns, policymakers were urged to formally recognise digital assets in inheritance law.

They were also encouraged to clarify identity rights and privacy protections after death, and create frameworks that addressed cross-border digital property.

Meanwhile, technology platforms were urged to develop systems that moved beyond credential sharing to proper on-behalf-of delegation, implement verifiable processes for death and incapacitation, provide users with controls over posthumous data use, and build systems with clear consent, revocation, and auditability.

The OIDF said standards bodies should design interoperable delegation protocols, create verifiable triggers for incapacity or death, develop trust frameworks for estate services, and ensure solutions respect cultural diversity.

To support advisers and their clients with digital estates, the OIDF has released a Digital Estate Planning Guide as a practical starting point.

However, the guide acknowledged that even strong planning faced limits when platforms lacked interoperable systems.

The OIDF’s Death and Digital Estate (DADE) Community Group, which produced the report, is looking for contributors from government agencies, legal services, insurance, financial services, healthcare, technology, and the death care sector to develop coordinated standards.

“This issue affects every internet user eventually, yet platforms treat death as an edge case,” commented DADE Community Group founder and co-chair, Dean H. Saxe.

“We have standards for authentication, authorisation, and digital consent. We need the same coordinated approach for what happens when users die, before AI deepfakes make this even more complicated.”

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