> When someone passes away, for example, it would be a terrible compounding tragedy if all their photos from their whole life passed away along with them, because they didn't tell anyone their password or where they kept the backup key. So Apple wants and needs to provide an alternative way to recover the account. (For example, they will provide access to a deceased person's account if their spouse can obtain a court order proving the death and relationship.)
A pretty interesting point.
Photos are probably good to recover... unless they were photos of something horrible you did (beat up someone, sent photos of your anatomy, etc.).
What about text messages? Again, it could express what kind of person you are. Do all iOS users have unwitting diaries that will be unlocked at our death in the form of our iMessage and SMS history?
In 400 years, will our ancestors point out, "Wow, great-great-great-grandma was pretty awful, did you see this text they sent once?" in a way that removes context from the message written at the time. This is something we can't know about our ancestors... and probably for the best, since otherwise we might be disappointed in our ancestors.
Over the past few years services have been slowly starting to phase in a way to specify a person who can "inherit" access to your account in the event of your death. I know Facebook has it fully set up now (you can go into your security settings and specify a "Legacy Contact"), and I expect that in the near future it'll be a standard part of any service that intends to operate long enough for this to become a worry.
That is also an interesting point. It certainly comes up often when next-of-kin go through the private physical possessions of the deceased and discover secret love letters, diaries, etc. They probably wanted those to stay private.
But for bank account records, most photos, etc., you probably don't want those to disappear in the event of your death. You want those to pass on.
Given the choice between the two defaults, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to make "accessible to next of kin" the default, and "dies with you" the opt-in.
A pretty interesting point.
Photos are probably good to recover... unless they were photos of something horrible you did (beat up someone, sent photos of your anatomy, etc.).
What about text messages? Again, it could express what kind of person you are. Do all iOS users have unwitting diaries that will be unlocked at our death in the form of our iMessage and SMS history?
In 400 years, will our ancestors point out, "Wow, great-great-great-grandma was pretty awful, did you see this text they sent once?" in a way that removes context from the message written at the time. This is something we can't know about our ancestors... and probably for the best, since otherwise we might be disappointed in our ancestors.
Or maybe that's an okay thing?