Resource

How to set up legacy contacts

Platform by platform instructions for naming someone who can reach your accounts if you cannot. Code hosting, social media, password managers, Apple, Google and Samsung.

In the event that you die, disappear or are otherwise unable to access your online resources, most platforms allow you to set a Legacy Contact. Think of this as a person who will have permission to take over your account should the worst happen and either take action to pass control to others, or to post a message infoming people of the situation.

It's up to you who you choose for this - it might be a spouse or a partner, or a close friend, but the most important thing is that you inform them that they are your legacy contact on that platform, and provide them with information on what to do if they need to enact this role.

Here's how to set up a legacy contact on various tools that you might be using.

If the accounts belong to an organisation

Legacy contacts are a consumer feature, designed around one person's personal account. They are the right tool for your own accounts, and the wrong tool for anything the organisation depends on.

For those, the equivalent is making sure the organisation owns the account rather than a person does:

• Registered to a shared address the organisation controls, not an individual's
• More than one administrator on every account that matters
• Paid on an organisational card, not somebody's personal one
• Recovery details pointing at something more than one person can reach
• Written down somewhere, so the list survives the person who made it

The bus factor audit has a section for this, and your overlay will have the specifics: open source, charities and NGOs, companies, small teams.

Coding platforms

• GitHub: Set up a legacy contact
• GitLab: No feature yet, but discussion is happening in this issue if you'd like to add your voice.
• Codeberg: There is no process.

Social media

• Facebook: Set up a legacy contact
• Instagram: Memorialisation request

Password management

• Bitwarden: Set up emergency access
• Lastpass: Set up emergency access
• 1password: Set up emergency kit

IT ecosystems

• Apple: Add a legacy contact
• Samsung: No formal process, but allows account management through next-of-kin with proper documentation. Contact Samsung Support with death certificate and proof of relationship. Recommendation: Share credentials via a password manager. Use Samsung's 'find my mobile' feature to remotely unlock posthumously
• Google Set up inactive account manager