Google Now Lets You Create a Data Will

Google unveiled a new feature yesterday that will answer one of life's great burning questions: What will happen to my email when I die? Dubbed the Inactive Account Manager—"not a great name, we know," the company admits in this blog post—the feature lets Google users decide what will happen to their data across Google services, including Blogger, Drive, Google+, Gmail, and YouTube, among others, if their account has been inactive for a set period of time.

The data can either be deleted or bequeathed to someone you trust. Before that happens, Google will send you a text and an email to warn you (read: make sure you've actually kicked the bucket). "We hope that this new feature will enable you to plan your digital afterlife ... and make life easier for your loved ones after you’re gone." The Washington Post notes that Facebook already has a less customizable post-mortem procedure in place, and that some states are already working on legislation on the issue. (More Google stories.)