How You Control What Happens to Your Digital Life
Your digital footprint is larger than most people realize. Email accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, online banking. Arizona's digital asset law gives you a clear, layered system for telling platforms what to do with those accounts if you are no longer able to 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 direction overrides anything in your will or trust.
What Happens Without an Online Tool
If a platform does not offer an online tool, or if you choose not to use one, you can still give direction through your estate planning documents. A will, trust, or power of attorney can specify whether a fiduciary should have access to your digital assets, including the content of your emails and messages.
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 significant. Your direction overrides any default buried in a platform's terms of service, as long as the platform did not require you to separately and affirmatively agree to a specific digital asset provision. In other words, a generic checkbox you clicked five years ago does not automatically block your family's access.
