"This will cause a lot of work.": Coping with Transferring Files and Passwords as Part of a Personal Digital Legacy

We present a qualitative interview study of 39 participants who describe their current practices and concerns with shaping a digital legacy, especially when they are using cloud-based storage services that unify secure file storage and password management functionalities in one service (electronic data safes). After introducing the transactional model of stress and coping as an analytical lens, we report on the users' coping strategies with respect to shaping and giving access to their digital legacy. Pre-mortem password sharing is identified as a common problem-focused coping strategy. Moreover, emotion-focused strategies of avoid-ance and ignorance are discussed. Challenges associated with passing on a digital legacy, such as the lack of enculturated practices, difficulties in the appraisal and selection of information items, the preference for deletion, and implicitly transferring data stewardship duties are described and discussed to develop design implications.

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