What happens to your accounts, data, and digital identity when you die or become incapacitated? In Inverted Podcast #18, the hosts explore digital legacy with Dean H. Saxe, including work with the OpenID Foundation’s Death and the Digital Estate community group.
From locked email and weird smart-home edge cases to AI systems that may keep acting “as you,” most people and products are unprepared. The episode covers consent, delegated access versus impersonation, government roles in proving death or incapacity, security risks like friendly fraud, and practical steps individuals can take today. For inverted product teams, death is not an edge case: mishandling it causes real harm and trust failure.
About the guest
Dean H. Saxe is a Principal Security Engineer at Remitly and a longtime identity expert. He shares work with the OpenID Foundation on standards and papers for death in the digital estate, including why unfinished digital estates need interoperable protocols.
Key takeaways
- A digital estate includes accounts, data exhaust, credentials, and ongoing automated systems, not only social posts.
- Companies should treat death and incapacity as core product scenarios, not rare support tickets.
- Delegated access is safer than broad impersonation for heirs and caretakers.
- AI raises digital immortality and unintended continuation-of-self risks.
- Governments may need digital ways to validate death or incapacity at scale.
- Individuals can start now with password managers, break-glass plans, and clear consent.
Topics covered
- Why digital legacy matters and real-world fallout
- What a digital estate includes: data, exhaust, consent
- Customer harm and business risk when products ignore death
- Delegated access versus impersonation models
- Government roles and scalable protocols
- Security risks: impersonation, friendly fraud, abuse
- Practical personal planning steps
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
FAQ
Who should watch this episode?
Identity and IAM product managers, trust and safety leads, estate and privacy lawyers working with tech, and anyone designing account recovery or legacy access flows.
Why is digital legacy an inverted product problem?
The best outcome is quiet: families access what they should, attackers do not, and the deceased’s wishes are respected. Failure is highly visible harm.
Delegated access or impersonation?
Delegation grants narrower, purpose-bound rights. Impersonation inherits broad power “as the user” and is harder to audit or revoke safely after death.
Related on Inverted PM
- Podcast #23: Account Recovery
- Podcast #28: Agentic AI & digital identities
- Podcast #27: How the World of Authentication Is Changing
- Podcast #17: Bug bounty
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- All Inverted Podcast episodes
Connect with the hosts and guests on the video or on LinkedIn to continue the conversation.
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Explore more
Browse all Inverted Podcast episodes, read the blog, or meet the hosts.
Related: Episode 23 – Account Recovery · Episode 28 – Agentic AI & digital identities