Forcing Tech Giants to Disclose Information for Investigation Purposes

The essay discusses the importance of disclosing digital information in the investigation process, particularly after someone's death. It highlights a case study where Eric Rash's parents were unable to access his Facebook account despite seeking information about their son's suicide. The essay also explores the concept of digital wills and how they can help users administer and monitor their digital estate, as well as provide valuable information in the event of an investigation or legal action. It emphasizes the need for tech giants like Google Australia to disclose data at crucial times to aid investigations, and the importance of digital privacy and legacy.

Running head: DIGITAL LEGACY & PRIVACY
Digital Legacy & Privacy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1DIGITAL LEGACY & PRIVACY
This essay will highlight the privacy, the digital privacy, digital legacy. This essay
will also highlight and focus on both alive and dead persons so that each and every person
can be protected on the social media long with all kinds of digital media. The comparison has
been made on legislations among Australia, US and British. This essay will primary show
lights on the scenario on how the digital assets can be protected and made secure simply by
making a digital will.
Privacy is the right and it is needed to everybody. Privacy is required to safeguard
one's safety and security, the rights contain the legislations which individual should know or
should be aware of (Ferrante, 2013). Anyone should remain in their boundary should not
cross the limit and interfere with others' privacy.
Digital Privacy is correlated with the privacy of the digital media cloud computing.
The digital privacy is threatened when the intruders attack one’s system and exploit the
personal files (Glennon, 2014). To check this attack digital privacy must be secured, special
cryptography software must be implemented to ensure the digital security and digital privacy.
The digital privacy law of Australia comprises the components-The personal
information of the individuals must be made secured maintaining the privacy policy, while
surfing or browsing the internet the users should use an alias name, the alias name can protect
one's identity, the real name can be breached and one's privacy can be threatened. The
gathered solicited data, as well as the unsolicited data, should be protected and made secure,
especially the unsolicited data coming from the external sources must be considered
separately and with special care (Glennon, 2014). The digital law also includes the principle
in which it has been stated that everyone has the right to access one’s private digital and
everyone has the right to modify his or her personal data.

2DIGITAL LEGACY & PRIVACY
The digital assets can be vulnerable to threats and cyber criminals can exploit one’s
personal data for their own benefits. The cyber criminals and the intruders take advantage of
the weak network and the users who are not used to operating system and software fall in
their trap and become the victim (Hopkins, Lipin & Whitham, 2014). The intruders mainly
carry out their activities and spread vulnerabilities via malware and worms. The virus is
spread by the intruders from one computer to another computer via stored files in the system.
The worms are opposite to virus, they do not require human intervention at all and they
spread automatically without any plugin or without the help of any software or any
application programs. The worms are more dangerous compared to a virus. Trojans look like
one program, once opened one can find that it is another program. Spyware and adware
should be added to the list as they are equally destructible like a virus and the worms
(Haworth, 2013). There are various kinds of attack that the cyber criminals carried out, that
attack involves Denial of Service attack, this attack basically involves hacking individual's
computer and robbed the vital data and prevent the owner of the system to enter his or her
own system. Now with the advent of cloud technology individuals can store data in the cloud
if the network is weak and is not secured properly the intruders can take advantage and can
make the exploit the cloud database and robbed of vital data.
However, the digital data can be made secure by the following techniques. The user
must implement both hardware and software firewalls to ensure both security and privacy of
oneself (Kundi et al., 2014). The firewall is responsible for preventing unauthorized access
One should alongside install the antivirus and antimalware software to secure the computer
system. The antivirus or the anti-malware software is capable of securing one's system
mitigating the virus' and the worms' harmful and fatal impact. This firewall helps the
authorized users to access the ports and protocols (Banta, 2014). In case of a wireless
network, the wireless components should be made secure to get the faultless security and

3DIGITAL LEGACY & PRIVACY
private network. Therefore, the network elements should have a proper authentication method
to secure the network connectivity and the authentication involves password implementation.
The password implemented must be strong, must be checked whether the password is strong
enough to secure the network.
Digital legacy is the norm to secure the digital assets from all kinds of digital risks.
The digital assets involve the e-wallets, online accounts, files and videos. The concept of
digital will is important, the business organisations perform business activities online, deploy
business applications in the cloud, deliver mail online, so all the business organisations now
conduct business activities both online and in the cloud platform (Edwards & Harbinja,
2013). So all the important files and the documents must be filed and stored as soft copies in
the will. This asset plays a vital role in the scenario where the account gets hacked and
attacked by malware and intruders.
The online media sites Google+, Facebook should secure their website and the first
approach they should take is to use HTTPs to secure the network. Also, they should use the
two-step verification process, the user should be proactive as well and should use this two-
step verification process. The users also must remember the security question and answer
along with that, it will help at the time of need. The users should also pick strong passwords,
the passwords that can ensure both safety and security, they should also set different
passwords for different accounts (Yeager, 2017). The user also should select friends from the
social media websites carefully. During website browsing, they should be careful about
which site they should access and which site they should not, and even should not share
personal data on the website as this can prove vulnerable. In case of a dead person, the social
media sites should take the initiative and should convert the dead people's profile page into
Memorial (Banta, 2014). The relatives of the dead person should report as soon as the people
die and the social media sites should proactively turn the page into a memorial page. After

4DIGITAL LEGACY & PRIVACY
the death of a person, they should disclose the dead person's profile details as this help in the
further investigation.
A British soldier named Edward Baxter was murdered in an insider attack in the
country Afghanistan. His sister proactively sends the proof of his death and send all the
documents to Facebook, they listened and turned Edward's page into Memorial (What
happens to your online accounts after you die?, 2017). Similarly, she wants to gain access to
Gmail but Google refused. Google Australia follows the same policy they do not disclose
anyone’s account be he is dead or alive. In the US there is a policy where Google can be
forced to provide the information for the investigation process. The lawyers of Australia think
that Google Australia must disclose data at the crucial times as that can help in the
investigation purpose. After the death of a person the lawyers and the close relatives remain
clueless, sometimes the mail account or the social media web sites can provide the
information that can help to solve the critical case. In this case study, a teenager Eric Rash
commit suicide and these parents do not know the exact reasons (Virginia family, 2017). His
parents think that Eric could have a girlfriend, he could have got poor marks in the exam,
even he could have been suffering from some sorts of trouble, however, Facebook is not
willing to disclose the secretive information of the clients. But Eric's parents want to know
the truth, they believe the answer is residing within the Facebook. So, they along with the
lawyers are going against the law and want to force the tech giants to change the regulations.
The ownership of digital property can be made simply by making a will. The users at
first just a list of the property they want to keep as soft copy in the will as a digital asset. If
any mishap occurs within the asset, the user will have to take responsibility for all those
mishaps. The digital asset can be secured with the help of password or a security question
attached with it (Weber & Staiger, 2017). The digital will must not have the username and the
password along with other important files. The user should recheck the policies and the

5DIGITAL LEGACY & PRIVACY
agreements to stay knowledgeable about the will policies. The secure will can secure the
one's digital property. Also after the death, the important information can be acquired from
the digital volt.
The digital wills help the user to administer and monitor the estate, the digital wills
also come into play while taking any legal actions or take legal actions from the lawyer
(Johnson & Seelye, 2017). The digital will can be of great help after death for investigation
purposes as well as in case of property dealings.
It can be concluded from the above discourse that the tech giants should take the
approach to disclose the details of a dead person as it can help in investigation purposes, it
also helps to take legal actions and legal steps, so this can help in property dealings and
monetary gain. The essay also highlighted the digital privacy, digital legacy and the digital
will concept. This essay showcased the possible security breaches and the control measures
have been discussed to ensure security and privacy.

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References
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