Rest In Peace – Your Online Legacy Will Continue

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ll3Just when you thought you had seen it all, along comes Legacy Locker. This service securely stores all a user’s online login-in data in case they die or are disabled. The announcement today portrays Legacy Locker as user’s “digital legacy” repository. In reality though, the service simply stores logins and password data so that they can easily be accessed by a person’s heirs or co-workers.

Legacy Locker Co-Founder Jeremy Toeman describes the service as an “online safety deposit box.” Ironically, the service costs as much, and at around $30 per year or $300 for lifetime membership, it seems a little high on cost and low on value to me.

With so many services out there that already provide more advanced features and tools, one has to wonder at such a development. In the case of passwords and log-ins, logic should point to backup on a flash drive and a real safety deposit box as one of dozens of options. At the worst any resourceful Web person could devise similar utility on their own PC or somewhere on Google I would think.

Legacy Locker landing page
Legacy Locker landing page

Legacy Locker does have secure features, and a few useful – if macabre – tools. One such feature, “Legacy Letters”, allows users to send out letters after their demise. Other features are designed to appeal to estate lawyers and address a series of “death or disability” events. As for the audience, the service targets a very special niche of roughly 12.5 million Americans families with children under 18, that have filed wills.

A Better Legacy

Instead of offering to save people’s passwords for posterity, a startup aimed at a person’s legacy should look more like ThisMoment, which we wrote about earlier. By enabling people to “build” a picture of their legacy through various media, and securing it with 512 bit encryption (like LL claims), something extraordinary could be left behind. I guess the “point of pain” for this startup is that so few have dared to think about doing this.

Startup Epitaph

Viability for this startup is tied directly to longevity. Without some guarantee user data will always be available, along with securing more than identities and passwords, the service seems useless in my opinion. Another “the end” service out there is MyWonderfulLife, which allows people to plan their funerals. But, Legacy Locker offers no such organizational ability, and I don’t see millions storing their banking or business passwords there to be honest.

As for Legacy Locker, they sure got some major coverage from Silicon Valley today, especially given they announced they were not doing a big PR push? Given this “surprise” coverage since I started writing from the press release, there is no doubt Legacy Locker will be famous today, but convincing users to pay for it will be another matter.

Phil ButlerPhil Butler
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