Digital Legacy Beyond GDPR: Succession, Data Protection, Access Rights, and Platform Power

  • Workshop
  • Le Baixu
  • Thursday 21.05 — 14:15 - 15:30

Organising Institution

University of Birmingham

International

As digital lives become digital estates, who governs the data, assets, and identities we leave behind? This interactive workshop explores post-mortem governance at the crossroads of succession law, GDPR, platform contracts, and generative AI. Using the European Law Institute’s Model Rules on Succession to Digital Remains as a catalyst, the session includes short expert provocations, live audience polling, and a reflective exercise (“From Law to Self”) that invites participants to apply legal principles to their own digital lives. The workshop’s objectives are to: • clarify the distinction between digital assets and personal digital remains; • test the limits of platform terms versus succession and public policy; • explore GDPR-coherent access models that protect third parties; and • assess cross-border solutions that ensure predictable enforcement. By combining expert insight with participant engagement, the session aims to humanise digital legacy governance and generate concrete regulatory insights for policymakers, regulators, practitioners, and scholars.

Host

Régis Chatellier

CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés - French Data Protection Authority) - France

Host

James Norris

Digital Legacy Association (DLA) and My Wishes - International