This isn’t such a technical post, but I suddenly had this thought – what will happen to all my Google Photos of my children if something happens to me. There won’t be negatives or packets of photograph’s in a drawer, they’re going to need access to my Google account!
What?
I’m gradually migrating a copy of all my backed up photos into Google, it feels like a sensible thing to do from a viewing point of view. I have the original full hi-res on a server and in cloud backup, but they’re not particularly accessible and you don’t get the fun of things like Timehop whilst they’re in those places.
Then it struck me, how can I make sure my wife/children can access them if something happens to me? I’ve started to put plans in place for my password manager but surely there has to be something we can do with Google?
Enter: Google Inactive Account Manager
Inactive Account Manager is Google’s answer to this.
You’ve set up a plan for if you’re unexpectedly unable to use your Google account, such as in the event of an accident or death.
It’s pretty self explanatory once you get started, but in a nutshell I’ve set my account to realise if I’ve not been in it within 3 months, at 2 months (this is the shortest period available) it will email and SMS me to check where I am. If it still can’t make contact with me it will contact up to 10 individuals (family members) and provide them access to the data I’ve chosen (everything from Calendar, Photos, Fit can all be chosen on a per contact basis).
If on the other hand you don’t want anyone having access to any of it, you can simply tell Google to delete your account once and for all!
Leave a Reply