{
  "study": {
    "id": "lifelook-digital-account-continuity-2026",
    "title": "Digital Account Continuity Study 2026",
    "question": "What continuity controls do eight consumer services publicly document for people preparing their accounts and data for absence, incapacity, or death?",
    "reviewed": "2026-08-25",
    "publisher": "LIFELOOK Editorial Team",
    "sampleSize": 8,
    "sampleMethod": "Fixed purposive sample: two consumer account ecosystems, four social/profile services, and two credential managers that hold family-relevant content or credentials and publish English-language consumer documentation.",
    "notRepresentative": true
  },
  "controls": [
    {
      "id": "named_prearranged_access",
      "label": "Named pre-arranged access",
      "definition": "The user can designate a person or emergency contact before incapacity or death through a provider feature."
    },
    {
      "id": "configurable_account_inactivity",
      "label": "User-configured account inactivity plan",
      "definition": "The user can configure an account-level period of inactivity that triggers a continuity action such as notifying a contact, sharing selected data, or deleting the account. Ordinary app or vault auto-lock does not qualify."
    },
    {
      "id": "self_service_export",
      "label": "Self-service export",
      "definition": "An authenticated user can export a substantive copy of their own content or vault data through an official consumer workflow."
    },
    {
      "id": "survivor_request",
      "label": "Survivor/deceased-account request",
      "definition": "The provider publishes a specific process for a survivor or authorized representative after a user's death."
    }
  ],
  "services": [
    {
      "id": "apple",
      "name": "Apple",
      "category": "Consumer account ecosystem",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Apple documents Legacy Contact, which lets an account holder choose a person who can request access to certain Apple Account data after death.",
          "sourceKeys": ["apple-legacy-contact"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official pages establish Legacy Contact and post-death requests but do not establish a user-configured account-inactivity trigger. Missing documentation is not coded no.",
          "sourceKeys": ["apple-legacy-contact", "apple-deceased-request"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Apple's Data and Privacy tools let a signed-in account holder request a copy of data associated with the Apple Account.",
          "sourceKeys": ["apple-data-export"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Apple publishes a process to request access to or deletion of a deceased family member's Apple Account, with documentation requirements.",
          "sourceKeys": ["apple-deceased-request"]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "google",
      "name": "Google",
      "category": "Consumer account ecosystem",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Inactive Account Manager lets a user select trusted contacts and choose data to share after the account becomes inactive.",
          "sourceKeys": ["google-inactive-account-manager"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Inactive Account Manager lets the user choose an inactivity period and configure contact notification, selected-data sharing, or account deletion.",
          "sourceKeys": ["google-inactive-account-manager"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Google Takeout lets an authenticated user create and download an archive containing data from selected Google products.",
          "sourceKeys": ["google-takeout"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Google publishes a deceased-user request flow for account closure and, in some circumstances, requests for account content.",
          "sourceKeys": ["google-deceased-request"]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "facebook",
      "name": "Facebook",
      "category": "Social/profile service",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Facebook lets a person choose a legacy contact with limited management abilities for a memorialized main profile.",
          "sourceKeys": ["facebook-legacy-contact", "facebook-legacy-contact-settings"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official pages do not establish an owner-configured account-inactivity period that triggers a continuity action.",
          "sourceKeys": ["facebook-legacy-contact", "facebook-export"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Facebook documents an authenticated workflow to export content and information to a device or external service.",
          "sourceKeys": ["facebook-export"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Facebook publishes processes for memorialization, removal, and authorized requests for content from a deceased person's account.",
          "sourceKeys": ["facebook-deceased-content"]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "instagram",
      "name": "Instagram",
      "category": "Social/profile service",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed Instagram documentation does not establish a product-specific named pre-arranged contact. Facebook's separate legacy-contact feature is not applied to Instagram by inference.",
          "sourceKeys": ["instagram-deceased-profile"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official pages do not establish a user-configured account-inactivity continuity trigger.",
          "sourceKeys": ["instagram-export", "instagram-deceased-profile"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Instagram documents an authenticated Accounts Center workflow to export selected profile information to a device or external service.",
          "sourceKeys": ["instagram-export"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Instagram publishes processes to request memorialization or, for verified immediate family, removal of a deceased person's profile.",
          "sourceKeys": ["instagram-deceased-profile"]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "linkedin",
      "name": "LinkedIn",
      "category": "Social/profile service",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official-result evidence establishes post-death memorialization or closure, not a member-designated pre-arranged contact.",
          "sourceKeys": ["linkedin-deceased-account"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official materials do not establish an owner-configured account-inactivity continuity trigger.",
          "sourceKeys": ["linkedin-deceased-account"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "An official LinkedIn Help result describes a data-download workflow, but the underlying official page could not be fetched and retained. Under the primary-page evidence rule, the cell remains unclear.",
          "sourceKeys": ["linkedin-data-download"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "An official LinkedIn Help result names a deceased-member memorialization or closure topic, but the underlying official page could not be fetched and retained. The snippet is not sufficient for an affirmative code.",
          "sourceKeys": ["linkedin-deceased-account"]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "x",
      "name": "X",
      "category": "Social/profile service",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "no",
          "rationale": "X's deceased-account documentation says it cannot provide account access to anyone and documents deactivation rather than successor access.",
          "sourceKeys": ["x-deceased-account"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "X documents a provider inactivity policy but not an owner-configured inactivity period or continuity action.",
          "sourceKeys": ["x-inactive-policy"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "X documents an authenticated archive request producing downloadable HTML and JSON with posts, messages, media, and other account information.",
          "sourceKeys": ["x-data-archive"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "X publishes request paths for an estate-authorized person or verified immediate family member to seek account deactivation after death.",
          "sourceKeys": ["x-deceased-account"]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "onepassword",
      "name": "1Password",
      "category": "Credential manager",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "Family Organizer recovery requires the member to complete recovery and does not itself grant vault access after death. The Emergency Kit supports manual handoff but is not an in-product named-recipient feature.",
          "sourceKeys": ["onepassword-family-recovery", "onepassword-emergency-kit"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "1Password documents configurable app and session auto-lock, not an account-level inactivity continuity plan.",
          "sourceKeys": ["onepassword-auto-lock"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "1Password documents exporting vault data from an unlocked app in 1PUX or CSV formats, subject to stated limitations.",
          "sourceKeys": ["onepassword-export"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official pages document family recovery and manual handoff but do not establish a dedicated survivor/deceased-account request process.",
          "sourceKeys": ["onepassword-family-recovery", "onepassword-emergency-kit"]
        }
      },
      "manualHandoff": "1Password explicitly recommends giving a completed Emergency Kit to a trusted person, such as a spouse or someone named in a will. This is a manual credential handoff and is not counted as provider-mediated named access."
    },
    {
      "id": "bitwarden",
      "name": "Bitwarden",
      "category": "Credential manager",
      "controls": {
        "named_prearranged_access": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Bitwarden Emergency Access lets an eligible account holder appoint trusted contacts before an emergency and choose view or takeover access.",
          "sourceKeys": ["bitwarden-emergency-access", "bitwarden-request-access"]
        },
        "configurable_account_inactivity": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "Bitwarden documents vault session timeout and an emergency-request wait time, but neither is a user-configured account-inactivity continuity trigger.",
          "sourceKeys": ["bitwarden-vault-timeout", "bitwarden-emergency-access"]
        },
        "self_service_export": {
          "value": "yes",
          "rationale": "Bitwarden documents exporting individual-vault data in JSON, CSV, encrypted JSON, or ZIP formats, subject to exclusions.",
          "sourceKeys": ["bitwarden-export"]
        },
        "survivor_request": {
          "value": "unclear",
          "rationale": "The reviewed official documentation establishes pre-arranged Emergency Access but not a separate provider request process for survivors after death.",
          "sourceKeys": ["bitwarden-emergency-access"]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}