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Last October 8th, van Mierlo (2019) posted a blog on the Information Strategy forum about the impact of technology on the Hong Kong protests. These protests, going on since June this year (BBC 2019), started out of fear of China limiting Hong Kong’s right as an autonomous state under in the Republic of China. With the help of live streams and encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, the protesters have tried to stay out of the hands of the police. Despite it being a political issue, now also commercial companies in the U.S. have faced the importance and impact of these protests and the increasing power of China.

It started with Daryl Morey, the coach of NBA basketball team the Houston Rockets. In his hotel room, he sent out a tweet backing the protesters in Hong Kong. Shortly after, two major Chinese sponsors backed out and Chinese state television refused to broadcast the NBA anymore (BBC 2019). Not long after, Blizzard, a major American game-developer, removed a professional player from the world cup of its digital card game Hearthstone and, in addition, took his won prize money. It did this after the player supported the Hong Kong protesters on a live stream (Cnet 2019) At last, Apple hit the news twice in one week. First, the tech giant banned the Taiwan flag emoji in Hong Kong (England 2019), and later it removed an app from its App Store that allowed the Hong Kong protesters to locate police offers via GPS (Nicas 2019). 

All these situations show a remarkable trend: American companies feeling an increased pressure from the east side of the globe. Despite these companies being in their right to take the decisions they took, we must ask ourselves whether they also should take a responsible role in these matters. Capitalism is a powerful system, but when does it overrule morality?

BBC (2019) ‘The Hong Kong protests in 100 and 500 words’, visited on 10-10-2019, on https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49317695

BBC (2019) ‘How one tweet derailed the NBA’s China game plan’, visited on 10-10-2019, on
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49995985

England, R. (2019) ‘Apple removes Taiwan flag emoji from iOS in Hong Kong’, visited on 10-10-2019, on https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/09/apple-removes-taiwan-flag-emoji-from-ios-in-hong-kong/

Gonzalez, O. (2019) ‘Blizzard, Hearthstone, and the Hong Kong protests: here ‘s what you need to know’, visited on 10-10-2019, on https://www.cnet.com/news/blizzard-hearthstone-and-the-hong-kong-protests-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

Nicas, F. (2019) ‘Apple removes app that helps Hong Kong protesters track the police’, visited on 10-10-2019, on
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/technology/apple-hong-kong-app.html

Van Mierlo, L. (2019) ‘How the battle in Hong Kong moved from the streets to the apps’ visited on 10-10-2019, on https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl//2019/10/08/how-the-battle-in-hong-kong-moved-from-the-streets-to-the-apps/

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Have you ever thought about what happens to your online data when you pass away? What about your Facebook account with embarrassing pictures of 2011? What about your Friday Guilty Pleasure Spotify playlist? And the movies you bought via iTunes, what happens to them? Although all this data is part of us as a human being, we spend little time thinking about these questions. So let’s dive into this matter.

Let’s start with our social media accounts. All big social media companies offer the possibility to delete a person’s profile. To do this, you can submit a request by sending proof of the death of that person and proof of your relationship with that person (LinkedIn 2019; Facebook 2019; Twitter 2019). Another option that the big social media companies offer is appointing an ‘inactive manager’. This person gets access to your account in case it has been inactive for a long time (Google 2019). 

Some people might already be aware of these options. However, they might be less informed about ownership of digital assets after death. Let’s say you bought a movie on iTunes. Although you would think your relatives own this movie after your death, you are wrong. When clicking the ‘buy movie’ button, you merely bought a non-transferable license to watch that movie (Martin Law n.d.). 

Although this information about deleting accounts and the ownership of digital assets can be found online, it can be a hassle for the relatives to figure out all the accounts their loved one had. Everplans is a company that offers a solution to these matters. It allows you to make a list of ‘digital executors’ that will be able to use your login credentials for all services that you wrote down (Everplans 2019). It is a nifty tool, but the reason it exists in the first place is that law regarding digital assets has not been able to keep up with the pace of technological change. In many countries there is no clear legislation on how to address these matters. In Europe, however, the first steps towards better legislation have already been taken. New laws say that any personal information can only be used by the owner, for instance Google, for the reasons that the owner allowed. Think about using this data for restaurant recommendations or improved search engine results (Marr, 2017). But it’s not enough.

More attention should be paid to the collection of data after a person’s death. Because, without clear rules, you never know what you leave behind.

Everplans (2019) ‘About Everplans’, visited on 03-10-2019, on https://www.everplans.com/

Facebook (n.d.) ‘Reporting a deceased person’, visited on 03-10-2019, on https://www.facebook.com/help/408583372511972/

Google (2019) ‘About inactive account manager’, visited on 10-09-2019, on https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?hl=en

Linkedin (n.d.) ‘How to report the death of a LinkedIn member’, visited on 03-10-2019, on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-report-death-linkedin-member-susie-sharp-/

Marr, B. (2017) ‘What Really Happens To Your (Big) Data After You Die?’, visited on 03-10-2019 on https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/02/01/what-really-happens-to-your-big-data-after-you-die/#45f504cb1184

Martin Law (n.d.) ‘What happens to your digital assets at death’, visited on 10-09-2019, on https://jbmartinlaw.com/inheriting-itunes-what-happens-to-your-digital-assets-at-death/

Twitter (n.d.) ‘How to contact Twitter about a deceased person’, visited on 03-10-2019, on  https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/contact-twitter-about-a-deceased-family-members-account