'13/#8 Seriously

Today's blog is going to be on a serious topic. Certain issues have come to my attention in the past week that I feel are important enough to share with you. A dear friend of ours passed away recently and  along with all the usual issues that her husband is dealing with more have come to our attention. In this digital age there are so many privacy concerns that we don't realize the difficulties that protecting our privacy may cause.

In our extremely mobile RV community as, well as other groups, we rely on social networks and other digital communications to keep in touch. Since this tragic event we have kept in touch and offered support to our friend's surviving spouse. The problem here is the survivor's inability to keep in touch because he either doesn't know how or doesn't have access to user IDs and/or passwords for the deceased's assorted accounts. We have heard through the digital grapevine that he has received everyone's condolences. I worry that on top of his suffering caused by the loss of his spouse that he may feel bad about not being able to reply to the outpouring of sympathy. Please know that all your friends know how you feel and don't need confirmation that our condolences were received.

My point here is that our user IDs and passwords, as private as we wish them to be, need to be shared to some extent. Mary and I have total access to each others e-mail and Facebook accounts. That is what we consider the trust in our marriage. It is not trusting the content of these accounts to each other. It is trusting that the information is still private even if we have access to it. In other words, even though I can read Mary's e-mail she knows that I won't unless she wants me to and the other way around. We both know that this trust will never be abused and feel better knowing that the information is available if needed.

We all make sure that wills are made, bank accounts are entrusted to a second signer, and property is not going into probate so why wouldn't we make sure our digital footprint is in the care of someone we trust. There is too much information there to just leave it floating in cyber space. Just something to think about.

I will sign off now from our somber home here in the forest because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary