Several years ago I came up with an idea and was told by most everyone I mentioned it to that I was, well basically nuts.
My idea was to set up an online system that would alert specific people if I was offline for an extended period. Say I was kidnapped by nefarious persons and held for ransom and off the charts for six months or a year. Ok, that would require me having money to pay the ransom, so scratch that one.
But what if I were extremely ill, say paralyzed or even dead (it happens to all of us). I would like my accounts to be closed, Facebook to have its final post from my account telling my "friends" that I had passed on and was happy. Whatever. I had even worked out many of the details of how the system would work. But my family and friends thought I was…well, you know what they thought. I said that before.
Now let us move ahead several years. Guess who did it? Yep, Google. In 2013 Google started their "Inactive Account Manager." One of my friends calls it "Digital Afterlife Manager."
Inactive Account Manager allows you to share parts of your account data or alert someone if you have been inactive for a certain period of time. To start using it, or just to explore, direct your browser to myaccount.google.com/inactive (no spaces or capitalization).
Google determines you to be inactive by looking at several areas of your account. They check your last computer sign-ins, your Android phone check-ins if you use one, your recent activity and how often you are using your Gmail account. Basically, it looks for long absences in your account activity.
First, you need to turn it on and then make a few parameter selections to set up this free service. You will need to choose how long you want your account to be dormant/inactive before they set things in motion. I chose three months. They will email and text my phone multiple times a month before that time, to make sure you are still kicking. So for texting, you give them your phone number. Also, you set up another email address, other than Gmail, where they try to make contact. If you do not show activity by responding to the emails or texts they move on.
Now you can set up an auto-reply email that is sent out after your account becomes inactive. You may send it to all emails you receive after that time or only a chosen few people. I just refreshed mine today. Next, you set up to ten people who will be notified that you are not responding.
Finally, you can decide what to do with your Google accounts. They can remain and just not be used or three months after your account goes inactive all of your Google data can be deleted. I don’t really care about mine after I am in heaven so it will be deleted.
So for all of you who thought I was nuts, so is Google, one of the biggest money makers in the world. Hmm, I should have sold them that idea.