The key to digital end-of-life is the “spare key” of smartphones: Separate management of things that should be left behind and things that you want to keep secret

Yusuke Furuta

How should the deceased's smartphone, SNS account, XX pay balance, etc. be dealt with after death? In recent years, there has been increasing interest in such "digital relics." I want to learn effective digital end-of-life methods so that I don't panic after my parents die, or my family doesn't get in trouble when I die.

You can't open a smartphone that doesn't know your password even with the FBI

Pixta

"I can't open my father's smartphone, which passed away. Can't I do something about it?" "My husband died suddenly. Important information about my work is in my smartphone. Please help me." Please cooperate. ”I have been accepting consultations on digital relics on websites for 6 years. The most frequently asked consultations have never changed from the beginning. I want to open the deceased's smartphone-this is 70% of all consultations. This consultation is very difficult. This is because smartphones are much more secure than PCs, and if you don't know your password (or passcode), you can't move on. A terrorist who caused a mass shooting in California at the end of 2015 left his iPhone at the scene of the shooting. The FBI, which recovered it, has filed a federal trial against the manufacturer Apple to provide a master key to unlock it. Even a single smartphone cannot be solved by the US police agency on its own. It's that strict. Depending on the model, there is a possibility that the contents will be initialized if you make a mistake in inputting 10 to 15 times in a row, so you can't do anything about it. As of January 2022, only a handful of companies can start analyzing deceased smartphones without a password, and most companies claiming "digital relics services" do not include smartphone analysis. When I get a consultation like the one at the beginning, I advise you to somehow find out your password. It may be written down on the document when you purchased the smartphone, or it may use the same character string as the car's electronic unlock key. If you still can't find the password, we will show you how to check if there is a backup left in the cloud or computer depending on the situation, or how to check the flow of money and the existence of insurance from other than the smartphone. After telling them that it costs about 300,000 yen on average for success fees, we sometimes introduce "a handful of companies" that respond to smartphone analysis. The number of consultation emails regarding these digital relics is increasing year by year. Why do the bereaved families want to open their smartphones like that? Why do you bother to search my site and contact me? This is because the importance of digital assets is increasing, and the current situation is that digital services are not catching up with the bereaved families.

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