From electronic applications to human rights legislation: Digital death and civil law

Abstract

The emergence of digital identity in online transactions and the relationships that may arise from it has made it imperative to seek solutions to regulate the relationships arising from its use, especially since email, social networking sites, as well as personal cloud storage and file-sharing platforms, connect individuals everywhere on the planet and can be accessed at all times and in all places.

While these sites were once used for communication and finding friends, they are now used for commercial or advertising purposes. These sites allow users to listen to the latest songs or videos on YouTube, while some brands offer information about new products and competitions through these sites.

The research aims to study the legal regulation of the death of digital identity by identifying the components of digital death. This research explores digital death and digital legacy, including its emotional and financial components, as well as digital wills. It also outlines proposed solutions for regulating digital heritage, whether technical or legal. The research concluded with the necessity of enacting legal legislation in Arab countries, especially Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to regulate “digital death” by stipulating digital death and digital inheritance with its two components, such as emotional and financial inheritance, as well as digital wills in the proposed law, in accordance with the results concluded in this research.