Google launches Inactive Account Manager so users can plan their ‘digital afterlife’

Google today is launching a new feature for Google account holders that will allow them decide how they want Google to handle their data when they die. The feature, dubbed “Inactive Account Manager”, will allow you to specify when you want your data to be deleted or select a trusted friend to handle the data for you:

For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data from some or all of the following services: +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube. Before our systems take any action, we’ll first warn you by sending a text message to your cellphone and email to the secondary address you’ve provided.

You can access the Inactive Account Manager now to select how to want messages for Gmail and data for a number of other Google applications to be stored when you pass or your accounts become inactive.