Google launches “inactive account manager” for handing over account to heirs

Search engine giant Google has launched “inactive account manager”, a product that would help it to handover accounts to deputed heirs after death of an account holder.

 

The new service can be used to pass on data of an account holder from all Google services like Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive or Google+ to anyone who has been named as trusted family member or friend. Alternatively, the account holder can also delete his account after remaining non-active for specified period.

 

Google account holders can choose three, six, nine or 12 months as the timeout period. One month before expiry of this period, Google would send a notification to the secondary email ID. If it does not receive any response, it would then send a personal mail to the trusted contact or heir saying that the person had left them the data. The mail would also provide instruction for downloading the data.

 

Google's new inactive account manager service is a simplified version of  accessing or shutting down an account, which required both birth and death notices from a family member. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook require many efforts for taking over an account, especially after the death of the account holder.