Digital afterlife: Ethical frontiers of post-mortem data to be investigated
2025-10-27
At the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, at the University of Borås, Senior Lecturer Jesse Dinneen is about to tackle one of the most pressing—and perplexing—questions of the information age: how should society handle the personal data of the deceased?
“I am preparing a project on the responsible handling of the personal data of the deceased in data-intensive contexts like digital legacy and AI-powered chatbots”, he explained.
Digital data tightly connected to our lives
Dinneen’s work raises profound questions; Should the dead have data rights? How long should personal data be preserved after death? How do we balance the value of digital legacies with privacy and dignity? These questions aren’t just academic in his point of view.
“Data are tightly connected to our lives and their stories. How would you want the digital likeness of your dearest family to be handled—by relatives, institutions, advertisers, or tech giants? Europe's data protection regulation, the GDPR, explicitly excludes the deceased,” Dinneen noted and continued:
“And professional guidelines for librarians, developers, and even descendants are missing. Cultural differences, ethical tensions, and sustainability concerns make this a complex landscape to navigate.”
A need for laws and guidelines
Until clearer laws and guidelines emerge, Dinneen urges individuals to advocate for their digital rights and prepare for the eventual transfer – or deletion – of their digital collections. Institutions, he says, must treat post-mortem data with reverence and restraint.
“Addressing these shortcomings will not be easy, as each circumstance is unique, cultural perspectives on the dead and their rights vary, and today’s apparent solutions are fraught with ethical and sustainability dilemmas,” he said.
As a researcher Dinneen is generally interested in multi-generational questions around personal data, and how we are remembered and protected – or not – after death.
“More specifically I am worried that ongoing problems of the information society, like data surveillance and the digital divide, extend to the deceased, who are not around and able to advocate for themselves”, he concluded.
As the digital age matures, he invites us to rethink memory, identity, and ethics – not just for the living, but for those we’ve lost.
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Jesse Dinneen joined the Swedish School of Library and Information Science at the University of Borås in July 2025, having previously come from Humboldt University of Berlin, where he began investigating the digital afterlife.