Dead Data: Who Owns Our Digital Remains in the Age of AI and Neurotech?

As digital lives grow, so do digital deaths. From social media accounts to biometric databases and brain-data collected through wearables, our digital traces often persist beyond our lifetimes. But who controls this data after we die? In many jurisdictions, especially across the Global South,there are no clear legal or ethical standards around digital legacy, inheritance of data, or the right to be forgotten after death. At the same time, emerging technologies are enabling:

• AI chatbots that mimic the deceased
• Voice clones and deepfakes used in memorial or commercial contexts
• Brainwave data stored by neurotech devices with unclear post-death ownership.

This creates risks around identity theft, misinformation, emotional exploitation, and loss of cultural dignity, especially for marginalized or underserved communities. This session explores the evolving debate around posthumous privacy, especially in light of new technologies like AI-generated avatars, memory simulation, and neural archives that can recreate or even monetize the presence of the deceased.

Participants can expect to gain:

• A foundational understanding of posthumous privacy and why it’s becoming a critical digital rights issue.
• Insights into how AI and neurotechnologies are reshaping what happens to our data after death.
• Awareness of the legal and ethical gaps in digital inheritance and consent.

1. Jasmine Ko
   HKyIGF
2. Melbourne Lim
   Manager, Deloitte SEA (South East Asia)
3. Jean Linis Dinco
   Independent
4. Ahmad Umair Suhaidi
   NetMission.Asia
5. Nawal Munir
   NetMission.Asia