Should I switch?

October 30, 2006 8:21 PM

Has anyone come across Deathswitch? Do you think it's worth doing?

While reading up on living wills, I came across Deathswitch. I'm very intrigued, particularly because this seems like a great idea and worth the $19.95 a year. My worry is whether it's secure. If so, to what extent would the directives I put forth on the site be legally-binding? Has anyone here actually signed up?

posted by Lillitatiana to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Why wouldn't you just ask a lawyer and/or friends to handle this?
posted by Jairus at 8:46 PM on October 30, 2006

People die all the time with this sort of information... and the world keeps on turning. I haven't heard any horror stories of the family that was left destitute because no one could get access to dear old dad's pin number... There is always someone somewhere who can reset the password.

A death certificate is the ultimate pass key.
posted by wfrgms at 9:01 PM on October 30, 2006

If you really wanted to do something like this, I would ask a lawyer to do it as Jairus suggests, and make it part of the planning you do when you write your will. I wouldn't trust this service to be around for very long, and paying $19.95 a year for them to not do anything doesn't seem very worthwhile. Besides, if you actually plan to have secret information sent out through Deathswitch, you'd want to make quite sure that you're dead first and that there's no possibility for accidents. Having the lawyer that handles your will take care of it is a pretty safe bet, as he/she can be instructed not to release the information without a death certificate in hand.
posted by zachlipton at 9:06 PM on October 30, 2006

The "last word in an argument" angle is kind of intriguing.
posted by macinchik at 9:07 PM on October 30, 2006

Besides what others have said, they dont answer one question in their FAQ:

What if I forget about Deathswitch? You know, life gets in the way you get involved in something exciting, you change email accounts and forget to "notify" Deathswitch and then, blammo!, all your contacts get some confidential info one day...

And, also: How can I be sure this info will be actually sent out? I mean, I'll be dead and nobody else will know and, you guys are more likely to get into liability problems if you DO send it out (see paragraph above)

To me, these are all serious concerns.
posted by vacapinta at 9:13 PM on October 30, 2006

I've been using deathswitch for a while, so I thought I'd pipe in. It seems their FAQ is in need of updating, because some of the above comments aren't really issues for the site.

To vacapinta's questions: as for how you know that your msgs will really get sent out after you die: test it yourself. I set up some fake messages to an alternate email address and I didn't respond to the prompts for a while until the switch flipped. I did this several times to make sure it works. (It does). I then log back in and click the 'I'm still alive' button to reset the switch and set up new msgs.

As for forgetting about deathswitch: there is an option for inputting a secondary email address, as well as a trusted friend's address -- both of those receive emails when the system goes into its 'worry mode'. I've also tested this out, because I'm anal about making sure everything does as it claims.

The bigger issue is the security of the information. This is the internet, after all. Deathswitch.com uses 256 bit encryption on the site and triple DES encryption (or something like that) on the database, but you never know, right?

So here's the right way to structure a deathswitch: write your messages so that an interceptor can not do anything with them. For example: 'my password is the name of our first dog together', or 'I've put all the vital information in an envelope beneath my favorite chair', and so on. Or set up Da Vinci code puzzles. They don't have to be profoundly enigmatic, just personal. All mine are set up so that even if a stranger got ahold of my msgs, he couldn't do anything with them.

A brilliant alternative method was suggested by Matt Hamrick in 2000: he suggested encrypting a message using, say, a 64 bit encryption key -- you then give the key to your recipient and the encrypted message to deathswitch. Or vice versa. Or split the key in half and send each half to different recipients when you die -- that way they have to combine forces to read the message. Lots of permutations on this idea.

Just my thoughts on it...
posted by schance at 10:15 PM on October 31, 2006