How You Control What Happens to Your Digital Life
Your digital footprint is larger than most people realize. It includes email accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, and online banking.
The law gives you a clear, layered system for telling platforms what to do with those accounts. This applies if you can no longer manage them yourself.
A user may use an online tool to direct the custodian to disclose to a designated recipient or not to disclose some or all of the user's digital assets, including the content of electronic communications. If the online tool allows the user to modify or delete a direction at all times, a direction regarding disclosure using an online tool overrides a contrary direction by the user in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record.
A.R.S. § 14-13104(A)The first option is the platform's own tool. Google's Inactive Account Manager, Facebook's Legacy Contact, and Apple's Digital Legacy program all qualify.
If you use one of these tools, and the platform lets you change your mind at any time, that choice overrides anything in your will or trust.
What Happens Without an Online Tool
If a platform does not offer an online tool, or you choose not to use one, you can still give direction through your estate plan. A will, trust, or power of attorney can state whether a fiduciary should have access to your digital assets.
A user's direction under subsection A or B of this section overrides a contrary provision in a terms-of-service agreement that does not require the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from the user's assent to the terms of service.
A.R.S. § 14-13104(C)This is important. Your direction overrides any default buried in a platform's terms of service. The exception is when the platform required you to separately agree to a specific digital asset rule.
In other words, a generic checkbox you clicked years ago does not block your family's access. Partial access to your accounts may be available even without full consent.