THE OpenID Foundation has warned that a lack of standardisation in how governments and tech firms handle the digital accounts of the deceased could invite fraud and exploitation. According to OpenID Foundation, its report, The Unfinished Digital Estate, argues there are no consistent global standards to ensure access to devices and accounts after death while protecting them, and urges a new framework across platforms, jurisdictions and industries.
The piece highlights that deepfakes could be used to impersonate deceased account holders for manipulation, disinformation or profit, potentially targeting surviving relatives or friends as social engineering bait. It also notes that personal data collected by websites could lose protection once someone dies under GDPR and CCPA, unless identity autonomy after death is better safeguarded.
The OpenID Foundation called for coordinated action from policymakers, tech platforms and standards bodies, including formal recognition of digital assets in inheritance law and the development of interoperable delegation and verifiable death or incapacity triggers.