🎙️ Inverted Podcast #18: Digital Legacy – Will You Continue to Live as AI After You Die?
What happens to your digital life when you’re gone?
In this episode of the Inverted Podcast, the hosts explore the emerging and deeply human topic of “digital legacy”—the data, accounts, and digital identities we leave behind when we die or become incapacitated. From locked email accounts and smart homes behaving strangely, to AI systems trained on your data that may continue acting “as you,” the conversation reveals just how unprepared most of us—and most companies—are for this reality.
Joining the discussion is Dean H. Saxe, Principal Security Engineer at Remitly and a longtime identity expert, who shares his work with the OpenID Foundation’s “Death in the Digital Estate” community group. Together, the group unpacks what a digital estate really includes, why consent and access matter, and how poor handling of digital legacy can reopen emotional wounds, create security risks, or even lead to unintended impersonation after death.
The episode also dives into:
- Real-world examples of digital legacy gone wrong
- The rise of AI and unintentional “digital immortality”
- Why companies should treat death as a core product scenario—not an edge case
- Delegated access vs. impersonation models for account management
- The role governments could play in validating death and incapacity digitally
- Practical steps individuals can take today to better manage their digital estate
This is a thoughtful, sometimes unsettling, and often practical conversation about identity, security, and what it means to exist digitally—both during life and after it.
👉 Links mentioned in the episode, including the new OpenID Foundation paper and additional resources, can be found below.
➡️Why digital estates need standards, and why we need them now: https://openid.net/why-digital-estates-need-standards-and-why-we-need-them-now/
➡️The Unfinished Digital Estate paper: https://openid.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The-Unfinished-Digital-Estate-Final.pdf
➡️OpenID – Death and the Digital Estate (DADE) Community Group (get involved): https://openid.net/cg/death-and-the-digital-estate/
If you’re interested in real-world security strategies, zero trust, and the evolving challenges facing media organizations, this episode is a must-listen.
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Chapters:
0:00 Digital Legacy: the question & why it matters
2:03 Real-world fallout: access barriers & weird edge cases
6:47 What is a “digital estate”? Data, exhaust, and consent
10:11 Why companies should care (customer harm + business risk)
15:23 Building for death: delegated access vs impersonation
20:39 Government’s role: proving death/incapacity in a digital world
24:13 The missing link: a “digital undertaker” + scalable protocols
31:05 Security risks: impersonation, friendly fraud, and abuse
33:51 What to do now: password managers, break-glass planning & wrap