Protection of personal data of Internet user after death

Relevance. The article examines the problems associated with the protection of personal data of deceased citizens, including those posted on social media accounts, on other online-platforms, analyzes the «right to be forgotten» in relation to personal information about a person after his death.

The purpose of the study is to supplement scientific provisions aimed at deepening the theory of law on the posthumous protection of personal data of a person, including his digital assets, on the removal of irrelevant and inaccurate information in succession; in developing proposals to address gaps in civil regulation of digital inheritance and «digital death».

Objectives: to determine legal means of protecting personal data of a person and other personal information posted on the global network after his death; identify shortcomings of the current legislation; update, taking into account the scientific discussions of legal scholars, proposals for improving the protection of intangible benefits of this category of citizens.

Methodology. To achieve a theoretical and practical result, the study was carried out with the involvement of the of schenoscientific and private scientific methods - dialectical, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, statistical, analysis of judicial practice, formal-legal, system-analytical and formal-logical methods.

The results of the study are of a theoretical-applied and legislative nature. They include proposals to resolve problems related to the protection of personal data of deceased citizens, the heritability of their virtual assets, including social media accounts. To overcome gaps in civil law, legalization of some concepts (digital inheritance, digital assets, “digital death”) is required, recognition in certain cases of a digital asset as a virtual property by the hereditary mass, the introduction of a probate order, the appointment of a digital keeper, etc.

Conclusion. Taking into account foreign experience, Russian legislation on the protection of personal data, personal information and digital assets of a person after his death is characterized by legal unresolved and uncertainty, which must be eliminated through the modernization of the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, regulatory laws and user agreements.

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