Like it or not, at some point you will face death. The topic of what happens to your stuff is often discussed and when it comes to real-world items, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. That sort of stuff is generally taken care of in a will and ultimately will be taken care of because those who outlive you will be forced to see that stuff sitting around and taking up space. The other side here deals with the digital side, which for most, could end up just sitting around given the bit about it being easy to ignore.

Well, it looks like Google has since stepped in with something to help you out. In this case, Google has launched the Inactive Account Manager that will help you determine what happens to your account when you stop using it. Sure, that could mean a time when you simply stop using Google, however there is a bit more here. The Inactive Account Manager has options to set a timeout period and even the ability to automatically delete your account.

This covers a range of Google products to include your +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube. And worry not, Google will let you know before they actually move forward with deleting your details. The process to get things setup appears simple and to the point, Google has steps for Alert Me, Timeout Period, Notify Contacts and Share Data and then Optionally Delete Account.

Beginning with the Alert me, here you provide an alternate email address and phone number so you can make sure to be notified. From here you move into the Timeout Period settings which includes choosing a timeframe of 3, 6, 9 or 12 months. Moving into the Notify Contacts and Share Data portion here and you can choose up to 10 friends to have notified should your Google accounts go inactive. And lastly, have everything deleted. So how about it, anyone going to move forward and get this all set up?

[via Google Public Policy Blog]

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