The short answer is -- nothing good.
The data of deceased persons is used and reused by companies and individuals for their own purposes. Some of these uses are moderately good, but most are unpleasant or even evil.
Ultimately this is because the dead have no data rights.
The main data privacy regulations are only for living people. And even then, the regulations only allow living individuals to request the erasure of their data (called - the right to erasure). Of course, a company that doesn't delete the requested information once can be fined, but here's the thing: your private data is held by so many entities that it's impossible to ask them all.
Some "personal privacy services" may request that your data be deleted on your behalf, but they are regional and generally only cover data brokers.
A deceased person must have left someone the legal right to access and manage the data. Some parents have tried to access their dead child's records and have been refused by the courts. Even if you allow someone, they have to go through the entire process described above. In other words, your data lives on no matter what.
But what good is dead data for companies and individuals? As someone says: "What better identity to steal than a dead person?" And this is just the beginning. Research showed that 50% of Facebook customers want their data deleted after death. 25% wanted their Facebook page turned into a memorial, 25% want to leave it as it is.
This phenomenon has spawned a whole new industry: the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI). The DAI market was around $350 million in 2020 and is expected to grow to around $5 billion by 2026. They track who visits the site and advertise to visitors.
Remember, most sites track you after you leave their site. And the average website has 15 external calls per visit (they send your data elsewhere).
But the digital afterlife industry is pretty good -- they host memorial sites, get advertising opportunities, and create profiles -- no harm.
And combining a dead person's data with AI creates a "digitally immortal personality or cyber-soul". If personal data is used without permission or stolen, it is called a "digital zombie".
Applying immortal digital personas can be fairly harmless -- like creating a persona from a great writer who can then continue to write. Or allowing a dead architect to continue designing buildings or an artist to paint.
