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'Yahoo Ending' Provides End of (Digital) Life Planning

 & Stephanie Mlot Contributor

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Yahoo Japan now offers full end-of-life services, from arranging your funeral to deleting your digital remains.

Japanese users can sign up for "Yahoo Ending," which sends out digital farewell messages to loved ones, and scrubs all personal data from the company's system once Yahoo confirms the user has passed.

In partnership with local funeral service companies, the portal also promises to help with arrangements (including securing a cemetery plot and memorial service), and walk you through the basics of writing a last will.

And, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, Yahoo Ending will create a tribute site to launch after the user's death, where friends and family can leave condolences. The memorial space allows for a bio, photos, videos, messages, and an invitation to the funeral—similar to how people use Facebook pages to remember the deceased.

Perhaps most importantly, Yahoo Ending subscribers can kick the bucket with some peace of mind: If selected, the service will expunge any charges to Yahoo's digital wallet, and delete all texts and images saved to Yahoo Box storage.

"This will prevent one's important private information from remaining online after one passes," Yahoo Japan said. But don't try faking your death just to erase any online history: The company will verify all casualties via a government-issued certificate of permission to cremate, according to the Journal.

Yahoo did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.

For more, get organized with PCMag's Passing on Your Passwords and Should You Use Google's Inactive Account Manager?

About Our Expert

Stephanie Mlot

Stephanie Mlot

Contributor

My Experience

  • B.A. in Journalism & Public Relations with minor in Communications Media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP)
  • Reporter at The Frederick News-Post (2008-2012)
  • Reporter for PCMag and Geek.com (RIP) (2012-present)

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