Digital Zombies - the Reanimation of our Digital Selves

Tabea Tietz, Francesca Pichierri, Maria Koutraki, Dara Hallinan, Franziska Boehm, Harald Sack

Abstract: What happens to our social media profiles when we die The episode "Be Right Back" as part of Netflix's series "Black Mirror" provides a possible scenario. A digital avatar is created to communicate with close relatives which learns from past social media activities of the deceased user. While the users entrust their social media content to one or more companies, even after their death, it may be reasonable to ask: What will the company really do with a deceased user's data: sell it to manipulate users or create advertisements In this paper we tackle the issues of ownership, ethics, and transparency of post mortem user data.