The authors emphasise how the digitalisation of death is increasingly featured in popular culture. Films and television series! such as Black Mirror and Cybervillage (Кибердеревня)! explore how digital technologies influence the memory of the departed and their role in modern life. This illustrates how much society cares about the topic and seeks to incorporate related developments into the context of daily life! bridging the possible and the real.
The collection Seance scene and handling of digital
footprints have also become an issue. After a person’s death! their data—including correspondence! photos! social media posts! and device information—remains the benefits of using it as a digital marketing strategy in the digital space. This raises a variety of ethical and legal concerns. For example! the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protects the personal data of deceased individuals for 30 years after their death! but this logistics and mobility regulation is fragmented. Legislation has been enacted in the USA to regulate access to digital heritage through online wills and powers of attorney.
Despite these measures! the issue persists. In some cases! platforms have become de facto owners of the data! allowing them to handle digital footprints at their discretion.
This can result in information
leakage! manipulation! and the creation of digital avatars without the consent of relatives or the will of the deceased. AI-powered chatbots enable the creation of digital avatars of deceased individuals! which! based on vast amounts of data! can virtually ‘revive’ a person! recreating their voice! speech clean email patterns! and even habits.
According to the researchers! digital avatars of the deceased can be likened to the monster brought to life by Dr Frankenstein: an image constructed from digital footprints and artificially animated in virtual space. On one hand! it is powerful and human-like! but upon closer inspection! its flaws become apparent—errors occur when generating images! and language models often produce false information.