Before you die, please think about your digital and genetic afterlife, researchers have urged.
The expanding use of technology means that people now leave an extensive body of personal information behind them when they die — a digital and genetic legacy that requires careful handling, according to academics at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Seattle.
Social media and other apps and websites compile large quantities of personal data while people’s genetic records live on in biobanks. Yet there are no consistent rules about what happens to all this data after someone’s death or who should have access to it, several researchers said.