For the record this was a question of what should happen. Not a "what does happen"
Readit Newseat-darich commented on Ask HN: When you die, should severs delete your data? · Posted by u/eat-darich
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If the number of threats of physical harm (death, disfigurement, rape, etc) my colleagues are receiving are an indication, I feel the protests are having an effect.
The only issue I see with protests are they can be simply ignored by people in power.
But when you boycott, you are doing that very thing to the people in power. Ignoring them. It's the reverse uno card if you will.
But, unless explicitly stated otherwise and sans specific circumstances (honestly maybe even then), I believe data should not only be kept, but publicized, after X years. I want this to happen to my data.
The X years is necessary so people aren't killed for their secrets, and when those secrets contain information about living family and friends.
Ultimately, most of “history” and “archaeology” consists of such data. There’s a lot we only know because we non-consensually examined long dead people’s bodies, living spaces, even diaries. Similarly, there's a lot we can gain from online people's online posts, diaries, etc. in the future.
There are many tangible consequences why you don't want everything about you to be public or even exposed to "good" authorities, but I can't think of any that apply once you're long dead.
I think as it currently is this implies that in our future, when we are all dead those who will look up our lives they will find it much harder to do. Or rather we will have a much more "curated" identity