MacVoices #23194: Joe Kissell Takes Control of Your Digital Legacy (1)
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of MacVoices, Chuck Joyner discusses the critical yet often overlooked topic of managing one's digital legacy with author Joe Kissel. Kissel's book, 'Take Control of Your Digital Legacy,' guides listeners on how to prepare for the handling of their digital assets after death. They delve into the complexities of preserving access to cloud-based services, the policies of tech giants like Apple and Google regarding deceased users, and the importance of planning for the transfer of digital property. The conversation highlights the necessity of addressing digital estate planning to prevent potential issues for loved ones and ensure a smooth transition of online legacies.
Takeaways
- 📚 Joe Kissel discusses the importance of managing your digital legacy, including digital assets that are often overlooked in traditional wills.
- 💾 Digital assets like photographs, emails, and documents stored in the cloud require special attention to ensure the right people can access them after death.
- ⚠️ Companies like Google and Apple have specific policies and tools for handling accounts after death, but these policies can be complex and vary widely.
- 📅 Google allows users to set inactive account managers who can access parts of your data if your account is inactive for a specified period.
- 🔑 Apple offers Legacy Contacts who can access most of your iCloud data upon providing a death certificate and other required documentation.
- 📉 Digital media purchases, such as movies and music, are licensed to the individual and access to these can be lost after death if not managed correctly.
- 📜 To preserve online content like blogs, users can consider downloading local copies or donating data to the Internet Archive for long-term preservation.
- 📽️ Internet Archive can be a more reliable long-term storage option for digital media compared to commercial services like YouTube or Vimeo.
- 🔍 Tools like web crawlers or applications like DevonThink Pro can help download and preserve entire websites or blogs for offline access.
- 🛠️ Ensuring access to digital assets can also provide backup access to personal data in case of account lockouts or other issues while still alive.
Q & A
What is the main topic discussed in this episode of Mac Voices?
-The main topic discussed is how to take control of your digital legacy, with guest Joe Kissel providing insights and advice.
Why is taking control of your digital legacy considered important?
-It's important because it helps ensure that your digital assets, such as photos, documents, and online accounts, are properly managed and accessible to your loved ones after you pass away.
What are some examples of digital assets mentioned in the discussion?
-Examples of digital assets include photographs, emails, documents, Google Docs, Bitcoin, and any files stored in cloud services like iCloud or Dropbox.
What does Joe Kissel say about the emotional aspect of dealing with digital legacy?
-Joe acknowledges that dealing with digital legacy is a morbid topic but emphasizes its importance in saving pain for both the individual and their loved ones by ensuring proper management of digital assets.
How does Google handle inactive accounts in relation to digital legacy?
-Google has policies in place for inactive accounts where users can set a time period for inactivity after which Google will notify designated contacts and provide them access to specific data categories if the user does not respond.
What is Apple's approach to managing digital accounts after a person has passed away?
-Apple allows users to set up Legacy Contacts who can gain access to most of the data in the user's iCloud account after providing a death certificate and other verification, although access to media purchases is immediately revoked.
What should you do if you want to preserve a blog or website after your passing?
-Options include downloading a copy of all the data, having someone continue to pay for hosting, or donating the content to the Internet Archive to ensure its preservation.
Why might the Internet Archive be a good option for preserving digital content?
-The Internet Archive is trusted for long-term preservation of digital content and can make data publicly accessible, ensuring it remains available even if the original hosting service goes away.
What challenges exist in preserving purchased media such as movies and music?
-Purchased media is typically licensed to the individual and not owned outright, so access is often revoked after death according to the terms of service, making it challenging to legally pass on these assets.
What advice does Joe Kissel offer for ensuring access to important data stored in the cloud?
-Joe advises setting up mechanisms with cloud service providers to ensure that designated individuals can access important data, and considering backup options for both digital and physical assets to avoid data loss.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Digital Legacy Management
The video script begins with an introduction to the topic of digital legacy management, emphasizing its importance despite being an uncomfortable subject. Chuck Joyner hosts the show, 'Mac Voices,' and welcomes Joe Kissel, author of a book on the subject. They discuss the necessity of planning for the management of digital assets after death, including the handling of online accounts, documents, and other digital possessions. Joe highlights the relevance of the topic, given the increasing frequency with which people are confronted with managing digital legacies.
🔐 Digital Assets and Posthumous Access
This paragraph delves into the complexities of digital asset management after death, focusing on the challenges of ensuring that digital assets like photographs, emails, and documents are accessible to the right people in the future. The conversation touches on the potential issues with cloud storage services, where data may be lost if payment stops or if the service provider deactivates the account upon determining the user's death. Joe Kissel provides insight into the importance of planning for such eventualities and the role of technology companies in facilitating access to deceased users' accounts.
📝 Policies of Tech Giants on Digital Legacy
The script discusses the policies of major technology companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft regarding the handling of user accounts after death. Joe Kissel explains the different approaches these companies take, such as Google's inactivity policy and Apple's legacy contact feature. He details the process by which designated individuals can gain access to a deceased user's data, subject to certain limitations and conditions, and the importance of being aware of these policies when planning one's digital legacy.
🕊️ The Implications of DRM on Digital Purchases
This section addresses the issue of digital rights management (DRM) and its impact on the inheritability of digital purchases, such as music, movies, and TV shows. The script highlights that these purchases are not truly owned by the buyer but are licensed for their lifetime. Joe Kissel discusses the legal constraints against passing on such licensed content and the ethical considerations surrounding the use of DRM removal tools to preserve access to these digital assets posthumously.
🌐 Preserving Online Presence and Content
The conversation shifts to the preservation of an individual's online presence, such as blogs and videos, and the challenges associated with maintaining these platforms after the creator's death. Joe Kissel suggests various strategies for ensuring the longevity of such content, including downloading local copies, using web crawlers to archive entire websites, and leveraging services like the Internet Archive to preserve digital content indefinitely.
📚 Final Thoughts on Digital Legacy Preservation
In the final paragraph, the focus is on the broader implications of digital legacy management. Joe Kissel emphasizes the importance of considering not just the practical aspects of preserving digital assets but also the emotional value they hold for loved ones. He suggests that while the technicalities of DRM and account access are significant, the primary concern should be on the personal and sentimental value of digital memories and how they can be best passed on to future generations.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Digital Legacy
💡Estate Planning
💡Cloud Storage
💡Legacy Contact
💡Inactivity Policy
💡Digital Executor
💡Internet Archive
💡Digital Rights Management (DRM)
💡Preservation of Data
💡Automated Account Management
💡Personal Data
Highlights
The importance of managing one's digital legacy, including handling digital assets after death.
Introduction of Joe Kissel's book 'Take Control of Your Digital Legacy' as a guide to dealing with this topic.
The challenge of traditional estate planning not covering digital assets like online accounts and data.
The concept of digital assets extending beyond monetary value to personal data like photos and documents.
Concerns about cloud-based data and services that may be lost if subscription payments cease.
The role of technology companies like Apple and Google in handling user data post-mortem.
Google's policy on inactive accounts and the option to set a period of inactivity before account review.
Apple's approach to legacy contacts and the process for accessing a deceased user's iCloud data.
The immediate cessation of access to media purchases from Apple upon confirmation of a user's death.
The potential for technology companies to inadvertently determine a user's death through data analysis.
The legal and practical considerations of passing on licensed digital media and the role of DRM.
The suggestion to focus on preserving personal data over licensed media in digital legacy planning.
Strategies for preserving online content such as blogs and videos, including using the Internet Archive.
The use of web crawlers and download tools to create local copies of websites and blogs.
The ethical and legal implications of removing DRM to pass on digital media after death.
The importance of having a digital executor to manage online accounts and data after the user's passing.
The value of local copies of digital content as a backup to online storage and services.
Encouragement for listeners to secure their digital legacy by following the guidance in Joe Kissel's book.
Transcripts
one of our most important shows ever
Joe Kissel takes control of your digital
Legacy
this is Mac voices
this edition of macvoices is brought to
you by the macvoices slack available to
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sign up today at patreon.com backvoices
welcome to macvoices
this is the talk of the Apple community
and I'm Chuck Joyner
folks today's topic is one that probably
we would all rather not deal with but
it's so so important and so if you hear
a start and you think I don't want to
hear about this please don't uh just
give it some time we're going to try to
have as much fun as we can with it
because of the very nature of it but it
is really really important for you and
for those that you love
Joe Kissel is back this time we are
talking about take control of your
digital Legacy
Joe thanks so much for being here thanks
so much for writing this book because
this is such an important topic and
unfortunately it's one that every single
one of us is going to have to deal with
yes uh hi if it seems like it was here
just last week
um
our our visits might be growing uh more
frequent in the near future uh yeah so
as you were just giving that
introduction I'm like you know come to
think about it a lot of my books are on
topics that people really don't want to
think about people really don't want to
think about backups and passwords and
online privacy and things
and so
a lot of what I think of my role is uh
is
taking those difficult painful things
and saying look
it's okay I've studied this I've
researched it I figured it out I'm Gonna
Hold Your Hand we're gonna we're gonna
just walk through it step by step it's
going to be okay so I think this is
another one of those topics although it
is
a little more explicitly connected with
death so that gives it you know that
extra that extra element but as I always
say as I said the last time we talked
about this six years ago and as I say
almost every time I give a presentation
on this topic this is going to be the
most fun presentation on death you've
heard all year uh so I I do like
yes it's a little morbid but I also try
to put as much of a a positive spin on
and say I'm I'm doing this to save you
pain right I'm doing this to save you
pain and to save your loved ones pain
and I want to make the process as
enjoyable as it can be
Joe it strikes me that it's a lot of us
and I'm I'm going to include myself in
that this is something that we shy away
from we put off we think oh you know
that's in the future and sometimes it's
not and so if you are one of those if
you have a will then good for you
um you've you've you've gone through
that process if you've done if you've
done any estate planning even better for
you but as we as we move to so many
things being online and really so many
things that are not just maybe Financial
or physical assets but our digital
assets that we want to preserve that's
where all the all the the traditional
Avenues kind of fall short and that's
what you're in here filling in for us
exactly I mean a will is great for
describing your wishes for your house
your car your money your tangible assets
most Wills don't say anything or at
least not much about your digital assets
and those can be just as important and
I'm not even just talking about like a
you let's say you own some Bitcoin or
something
well that's kind of a digital asset it's
also kind of a monetary asset it's that
little bit of a gray area in between
there are things like that but even
things like your your photographs your
email your documents
um ensuring that the right people have
access to these in the distant future
can be really really important
but then there's this other whole layer
it's not just like well there's a file
on my computer and I want to make sure
somebody has it yes that's important but
also
a lot of our stuff is stored in the
cloud now a lot of our stuff is stored
only in the cloud like you might
whatever you use Google Docs to compose
a novel I know of people who do this and
so that novel doesn't exist as a file on
your computer it is only in the cloud so
let's imagine you've written this great
work or whatever it is and you die
and your heirs want to publish this
posthumously
but in the meantime Google has figured
out that you're dead and they've like
erased your account or something I mean
that kind of thing Could Happen
um or you know there's some valuable
data that you store in a cloud service
but it's only going to be stored there
as long as you keep paying for it
monthly and you know once your credit
card stops working uh that data goes
away so there are a bunch of
considerations like that that we don't
even think about while we're alive well
of course I'm always going to have
access to iCloud drive I'm going to have
access to Google Docs I'm going to have
access to Dropbox or whatever the thing
is
yeah probably while you are you know of
of sound mind and body but what about
afterwards
so that is just one of the things that
one of the broad categories that this
book helps you get your head around like
okay what what would my spouse kids
whatever do
about my important data where whether
it's stored locally or in the cloud or
wherever how would they get at the stuff
they need and how would I make sure that
I pass on the right things the right
people
you said something there though that I
don't think a lot of us have thought
about if if Google finds out that you're
you've passed
um if Apple finds out that you've passed
is it is it strictly a matter of who's
paying for what account or do they have
policies in place do you know that they
say okay
Joe's gone so we're going to give his
account six months and then it's it's
done
well it's messy in fact so so I wrote I
wrote I wrote this book originally back
in 2017.
has not had a single update in six and a
half years I mean 2017 that was when I
turned 50 and I dyed my hair purple and
that whole thing was happening I can't
believe was that six and a half years
ago holy like I'm I'm old okay I know
I'm not that old but like I think I feel
it's not that I'm old it's more like wow
time is passing quickly but uh it's very
unusual for such a long period of time
to go between updates and uh this was a
topic that I kind of felt like I wrote
it and like I'm I'm probably good like
what's going to change with death over
time this this book can last forever
but then over those six years
I started noticing things one of one of
the things is I've given many many many
presentations on this topic to user
groups they ask me questions and I go oh
huh I hadn't thought about that let me
put that in the next Edition but another
thing that has happened is that big
technology companies most especially
Apple and Google have sort of said you
know our customers are sometimes dying
we should Institute some actual policies
on the one hand and maybe some tools
that can help them on the other hand
so
um I have a whole new chapter on what do
you do about your Apple account your
Google account your Microsoft account
because any of us regardless of what
operating systems we may use might have
any or all of those accounts and they're
they're kind of big they affect a lot of
kinds of data
so everybody has a different story
Google has one approach and
they don't you know Google is not going
to actively try to figure out when
you've died
yes if you stop paying for certain
Services those Services would become
available unavailable but they will
they will keep
accounts open for quite some time but
now they they've they've sort of they've
created policy about inactive accounts
so basically
if your account isn't if you don't even
log in at all for a certain period of
time then app then Google can decide
well either they're dead or they're just
not using it so we're going to send them
some notices and if they don't respond
to the notices we're going to shut them
down but they added on to that
a mechanism whereby you can say okay
this is the amount of time I want you to
wait until you consider my account
inactive and a month before that time
elapses whatever you set maybe it's
three months maybe it's two years
uh please send me a notice to remind me
in case I'm still alive and still
checking my email or phone or whatever
so that I can take some action and if we
get all the way to the end of that time
period and
and I haven't responded to any of those
pings uh please notify the following
people and you give them a list and you
say this is the portion of my Google
data that I want this person to have
access to and this is the portion I want
to have
uh this person have access to so and
there's dozens of categories there's
your email there's your documents
there's your photos there's all kinds of
stuff so that's Google's way of doing it
Apple
it's something a bit different uh they
they spelled out look your your iCloud
account and all of the data associated
with it is valid only while you're alive
again Apple isn't going to go out of
their way to
proactively figure out whether you've
died they will get some clue if you stop
paying for your uh for your additional
storage or whatever
but Apple's thing is all right
you can set up these Legacy contacts who
once you've died the the person on this
list that you've supplied can send us a
copy of your death certificate send us a
copy of their IDE and uh send this code
that we've given them in advance there's
this whole whole process to you know for
for security
and then those designated people will
get access to most of the things in your
Apple ID account they won't get access
to your passwords and there are a couple
of other things they won't get credit
card information things like that but
they will get access for a limited time
to almost all of the data in your iCloud
account
the the tricky part is uh and this is
this is especially true with Apple
when your legacy contacts the designated
people with one of one of those people
says okay you know this person has died
here's their death certificate once
Apple gets the death certificate that
starts a clock ticking all right so at
that moment they they completely erase
that accounts access to any media you've
purchased so if you've purchased music
TV shows movies whatever any kind of
media that you purchase from Apple
that's licensed to you as a living
individual and once Apple knows that
you're dead immediately accessed all
that stuff is cut off
and then there is a period of time
during which your assigned people can
get access to other data
so if you didn't
if if if you if nobody informed Apple
that you had died officially if nobody
sent them a death certificate
then as far as Apple knows you're still
alive
and your heirs could
I mean it would be technically against
the terms of service but there wouldn't
be anything technologically preventing
them from signing in with your
credentials and continuing to watch the
movies and TV shows that you purchase
and that kind of thing
but as soon as Apple knows that you're
dead because someone told them then they
they lock down all that stuff so
depending on your circumstances that
that Legacy contact thing may be a
benefit or it may be a detriment again
as far as I know none of the big
technology companies right now are
actively trying to find out whether
someone has died
but apart from someone explicitly
informing them that you have died
they are kind of Silent as to whether
any other
passive things may happen so if they if
they happen to notice that oh well so
and so signed up for an account they
gave their birth date back in you know
1990 and they said that they're 80 years
old and just you know kind of looking at
the calendar
well I I kind of really doubt that
they're still alive like so there there
could be things like that going on I
don't know I uh I I don't know if they
take action only when they are
officially informed or if they ever kind
of just suss it out but
um in any case the big new chapter of
the book that sort of walks through all
that all that stuff
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it's not hard to imagine as we're
watching
um the the large language models I I
resist saying AI
yeah but uh if somebody does a query
it's not going to be terribly hard to
for a lot of people maybe not everyone
but for a lot of people to be determined
to be
the past because all these databases are
going to be Crossing up and
you know we you and I both know that our
information is not as secure as we would
like it to be our private information
and that would include I guess your
death certificate
well what's even scarier about the large
language models and I have seen many
many examples where some someone some
personality unmastodon for example will
say well I just I just asked you know
chat GPT to give me a biography of
myself all right and and it'll say well
you know so and so was a this that and
the other thing and they died in you
know 2012 and they're like I I really
didn't
so so so so sometimes these these
so-called aisle just this makeup stuff
and who knows what facts they
incorrectly piece together to come up
with that result but they make up stuff
and they claim that people have died
when they have not
and that is the more troubling thing
what if
some technology company
um incorrectly you know somebody
somebody does one of these things or
it's it's it's done in an automated way
and somebody incorrectly comes to the
conclusion that you've died and so your
access to all this kind of stuff is
blocked well I mean you know spoiler it
turns out that if you do the stuff in my
book it's not just for your errors after
you've died I mean it is but also it can
give you backup access to your own stuff
if you're somehow cut off so there's
that
yeah
well that's obviously a good thing
um yeah
Joe one other thing I don't want to take
us too far down a rabbit hole here but
but I think it's important to mention
um what you said about the the purchases
you've made through let's just say the
Apple Store that those are really not
purchases exactly they're licensed to
you and if you go away access to those
goes away and that's within the terms
that you agree to whether you knew it or
not when you made the purchases
so is there a way to and I want to be
real careful here because I don't want
to encourage encourage anything that is
not
legal or proper but is there any way to
protect ourselves for that if if I've
spent if I spend two thousand dollars on
movies I'd kind of like to be able to
have the option maybe to pass those on
have I just completely given up that
right already or is there a way for me
to download those and protect myself
well you know
uh the way I sometimes put this when I'm
talking to user groups is
big technology companies
enforce their licenses by way of DRM
digital Rights Management popularly
known or unpopularly known as copy
protection now I will parenthetically
say that take control books does not use
copy protection so you can pass on our
books forever but uh but and an apple uh
Apple used to use DRM for
tracks purchased from the iTunes Store
now this is totally different from I
from Apple music but they stopped
applying DRM to music tracks purchased
from the iTunes Store that's largely
irrelevant today anyway because because
of Apple music but
still is the case for most of the books
you buy from Apple Books also books you
buy from Amazon through your Kindle and
so forth and of course always always
true of TV shows and movies that you
purchase from Apple again not not ones
that you've just rented or streamed over
Apple TV Plus or something like that but
uh ones you've actually bought you
haven't really bought them you've
licensed them so what I what I say is
that the the letter of the law
and I do generally like to be a law
buying law-abiding citizen the letter of
the law is that it's it's licensed to
you you agreed to that it's for the
duration of your life and no longer and
it is not an asset that you actually own
you do not have the legal right to pass
it on now I have heard
that there exists out in the world
methods by which a person could remove
DRM
and I certainly wouldn't know anything
about that from personal experience but
I imagine if someone were interested in
learning about such
legally dubious technologies that a web
search might produce information for
them and that's all I'm going to say
okay that's fair because yeah I asked
the question how do we legally
reasonably do it and so if you if you're
willing to step outside that then
you you run a lot of risks
it also might benefit and have some
rewards so but that's that's got now to
you individually
again I would not would not encourage
illegal activity
but
I will just state that if you were to
undergo some illegal process
in order to
you know give something to someone else
and later that were discovered well if
you were the perpetrator you're already
dead so it would be it'd be rather
tricky to prosecute you
so I mean you you can factor that into
your thinking if you like on the other
hand I gotta say and this is
you know I I've gotten a lot of feedback
on this book from a lot of people
including people who like are
professional archivists and historians
and things like that
and one of the comments I got was like
look Joe like I get what you're saying
about the media but
think about this differently when when
you have died your loved ones are going
to care about
their memories of you
they're going to care about pictures of
you with them they're going to carry
care about personal stuff
they're not going to care what you spent
money on while you're alive and and and
can they still watch that movie that you
bought 10 years ago
I mean somebody might okay but but
that's
that might might seem like a big thing
on your list because you've invested
this money in this media for yourself
but in all probability your family your
errors whatever aren't really going to
Care much about that
they don't care what what the Lost
investment might be What Might Have Been
because they lost you
so the the advice that I got from people
was like okay yeah you can mention that
but really
downplay it because that is that is the
least of your concern when you are
thinking about how to pass on your data
it's a very fair point that's a very
fair point
okay
wow there's I mean there's so many ways
so many things I want to ask about here
um so let's rock on we got time well
okay so let's take that particular topic
and Riff on it from the other direction
I'll use myself for example I have a lot
of a lot of episodes of Mac voices that
have been recorded now why anyone want
to go back and look at those I don't
know but I'm going to assume that maybe
someone for the sake of this discussion
anyway that someone cares enough about
me that they want to would want to go
back and see something that you know we
published
a long time ago
yeah how do I now there there's the
steps that I've taken
um and we can talk about some of those
later but and there are ways that they
could probably access them still like on
YouTube or Vimeo or whatever well no not
Vimeo because if if I stop paying for
the Vimeo account it goes away YouTube
theoretically is forever theoretically
how do I protect though let's take the
video out let's say I've published a
Blog
um and
I need to keep up the hosting fees or
that blog goes away
is there a way to protect ourselves
there is do you think that should be a
concern of ours
possibly so
I'm actually I'm actually gonna go back
to the video for a second because that's
in a way that's an easier question to
answer
did you know that you can you if you've
heard of the internet archive right
archive.org where uh you can like oh I
went to a web page but the link was
broken because the the company went out
of business or something but can I see
what that web page looked like a year
ago or five years ago yes I got
archive.org and I pop in the URL and
says well here's what that page looked
like when we crawled that at a certain
point so I use this all the time
you can donate data including video to
the internet archive and I I have a link
in my book to a story of uh
someone who had
Who had who done all this writing and
his instructions to his his son or
whatever were on my death
all this all these files that I've
created on on my computer you donate
those to the internet archive they're
going to become public domain and
because they are there they're you know
massive backup system is going to
preserve them for all eternity maybe not
all eternity but
I would trust the internet archive with
my video for longer than I would trust
YouTube
because YouTube is profit driven and if
videos become unprofitable for them at a
certain point they may say yeah let's
just delete that uh there's there's
really not a guarantee that those will
stay alive forever but uh you have a
much you have much better odds
let's say okay you're gonna download
you're gonna have a local copy of all
these videos and you leave instructions
okay after I'm gone
you my digital executor upload all this
stuff to the internet archive and make
sure that it's available to uh to the
public now so that's that's one answer
to that you could of course also
say well I I want to make sure that that
Joe Kissel has a copy of all the what
it's like well over a hundred up I have
no idea like many many I want to make
sure Joe Kissel has a copy of all of the
uh Mac voices that that he and I did
together so somebody bundled those up
and and send them to him or something
like that so you could do that now in
terms of I do mention blogs too and this
is one of those things that like oh I I
don't say enough about this I should I
should really say more so something like
a Blog
you're correct that once those monthly
hosting fees are no longer paid that's
just going to evaporate so there are a
few ways of handling that one is
somebody can download all of the content
whether they save it as PDFs or as local
HTML files or whatever it may be uh they
can they can just say okay well here's
here's a uh a big a PDF of of all the
collected blog posts of this person and
they can just make that available
somebody else could continue to pay for
the hosting
but it's hard
I mean
it's hard to keep a a website of any
kind alive indefinitely because even if
you're using a free service that
theoretically will host it forever
sooner or later that company could go
out of business
so and I and
there was a
there's a site that I used to rely on a
lot because I've written a lot about
backups there is this site that that a a
private citizen not an employee of Apple
had put together about time machine just
going into detailed excruciating
information about every aspect of time
machine and all these great
troubleshooting tips and all this like
you know Arcane information and I would
refer to the site fairly often uh then
this guy died
and
within a short period of time the
website just disappeared now as soon as
I found out that he died I downloaded a
copy of that entire website locally so
that I can still get that app of course
it's very outdated now this was a number
of years ago
but
but that's the kind of thing that people
are going to encounter if you have a
blog or a website or any kind of online
presence that requires ongoing payments
and you would like that information to
remain available to the public
afterwards it's going to be really hard
so either you pass on the responsibility
for the cost and maintenance to somebody
else which could be an option
or you just say well too bad it's no
longer there I've got a local copy that
I can pass on individually to other
people and they can do with it what they
want
you I mean a Blog might be hard to get
into the internet archive it's possible
not as easy as some other kinds of
content
but uh what I would say is at the very
least make sure that your executor has
downloaded a copy of all that data so
that if and when the live version online
goes away
it exists locally such that someone
could do something else with it
okay
is it fair for me to ask
one very specific question since you
gave a very specific example what tool
did you use to download that particular
website what is out there that that I
could point to a particular website and
say I need a copy of that
period
there are a few and this was several
years ago so I don't remember off the
top of the head off the top of my head
which one I used but if I had to guess I
would say was probably Devin thinkpro
because that's an app that I have open
all the time and it does have that
capability of of calling websites and
downloading local copies it was most
likely that okay that yeah that I can
see somebody emailing us and saying you
know hey specifically which one so
um yeah you can you can do a search in
your favorite app store for something
like uh you know a web crawler or a I
don't know what web scraper there are
different terms used for tools that uh
that grab copies of stuff off of website
you know it's one thing to say well I'm
looking at a web page and so I'm just
going to save that as as the HTML Source
I'm going to save that as a PDF or
whatever
that's great for one page but if you
want to follow all the links on that
page
and then download all the pages that
those links are attached to
um you really need a web crawler of some
kind and uh
and it and that that's that's a bit of a
tricky undertaking because
sometimes sites can just be gigantic
they might have thousands hundreds of
thousands of pages I mean like nobody in
the right mind would try to crawl
Apple's website and download a copy of
every single page that would that's that
would be Madness but uh
there there are tools that do that
Joe is back in the next edition of Mac
voices to finish up our conversation
about the latest revision to his book
take control of your digital Legacy and
this is really really important I
strongly encourage you to go to take
controlbooks.com pick up a copy of this
and follow Joe's guidance to help secure
the things that are important to you for
when you're not around
until the next time and as always I'm
Chuck Joyner thanks for watching
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