Windows 7 Protected Data

[seekermeister]

I really don't think that it can be done, but I shall ask anyway. I want a method that permits me to give some data to another person, that can't be read until the time of my death. I do not want to have to rely on the honesty of that person to honor this trust. I know that there are legal means to accomplish this purpose, but that would entail factors that I don't want to have to deal with.

Perhaps the best way to approach this is to encrypt the data on a password protected flash drive, but for that to work, the person would have to be given the password in advance, which would defeat it's purpose.

I really don't care how it is actually done, if it is something that I can accomplish myself via my own computer, without any outside person or institution being involved. Is this a lost battle?

 

[Jimbo22]

Why not use the cloud....eg Skydrive or Google drive, in which you can only share a link to said person or persons.

 

[seekermeister]

Yes, I could use something like that, except that it still would require giving the intended person the link well in advance of my death, and there would be nothing to prevent him from using it at any time.

 

[badrobot]

The safest and timely way would be to include that password (in a sealed envelope) in your will. Which reminds me, I have to make time next week to meet my lawyer to sign my will.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that you are probably right, but I'm trying to find a means of eliminating the lawyer and will. I don't have much, except some personal property and a small amount of cash and bank account funds. As things stand now, since I do not have a person recorded for notification in case of death, the apartment complex I live in would dispose of it in any fashion that they chose, which would mean that the complex's staff would keep what ever they chose, and distribute what ever is left to the other tenants. I do not mind the distribution to the tenants, but I want to eliminate, as much as possible, what the complex's staff would scavenge. The other alternative is to donate everything to the Salvation Army, but regardless of the beneficiary chosen, it would require that they secure everything before the scavengers had an opportunity to feed.

 

[badrobot]

I am sure you still can afford a lawyer fee just to prepare a will for you. It doesn't cost a fortune.

 

[seekermeister]

It's not really the cost (however I don't know what to expect either), it's that I'm quite a bit of a recluse, and don't know of any lawyer that I would want to deal with. It is possible for a person to prepare their own will, but then it would be necessary to have someone reliable to execute it. If I can't find any other means, I may resort to a lawyer, but if he were also the executor, he would take a large slice of the pie, before divvying up the rest. The lawyer is just another type of scavenger.

 

[Fixer1234]

Give the person the encrypted file plus the instruction that the key is in a capsule embedded under your skin and will be removed and given to him after your death. Wear a medical alert tag with the location of the capsule and instructions that in the event of your death, the capsule should be removed and sent to the designated person. You would need to find a water-tight, non-bio-active capsule.

You could avoid the surgery by incorporating the key into the medical alert tag, say in a pocket inside the tag so it was not visible, and the tag would say to send the tag to the designated person after your death. In this case, the instructions to the recipient would be to get the key out of the tag.

 

[seekermeister]

Imaginative, but surgery is out and I tend to doubt that anyone would pay enough attention to a medical alert tag on a body of a person found already dead.

 

[Fixer1234]

Actually, it is almost guaranteed that a medical alert tag would be checked. They would have to establish a cause of death and that is one of the first things they would check. You would also have many different people who are trained to look for it--the police and EMTs who would respond, the medical examiner, the mortician, etc.

On the other hand, whatever it is that is of concern to you now, after you're dead you won't care.

Another angle to pursue: After you die, your possessions will not be enshrined in a glass dome in place. Someone will have to deal with it and there are legal requirements for looking for a will or instructions, etc. You don't need a lawyer to prepare a will. There are forms for a valid will online and you could even just write one out long hand stating your intentions. (BTW, you want that in hard copy form, not on your computer--nobody will be able to access it on your computer without your logon and likely would not think to try.)

Don't worry about whether the will is valid. You would be using it primarily to convey information (the encryption key). Even if the will was to be contested, that would, at worst, just delay delivery of the key. If that is the only document stating your intentions, it would be honored to the extent that the provisions do not violate the law unless it is contested. In that case, only the contested elements would normally be delayed.

 

[seekermeister]

Okay, but even if all that you have said would work, I don't know that it would work fast enough, because I know that the complex that I live in would dispose of my belongings within a week of my death, so that the apartment could be re-let to someone else. The items would end up either being scavenged by the complex staff, with what they didn't take being set out for other tenants to claim, and everything unclaimed or taken ending up in the dumpster.

 

[badrobot]

get the password inked to your body and tell that person that he can only find out what that password is when you are gone.

 

[seekermeister]

Tattoo... ugh!

 

[Fixer1234]

Okay, but even if all that you have said would work, I don't know that it would work fast enough, because I know that the complex that I live in would dispose of my belongings within a week of my death, so that the apartment could be re-let to someone else. The items would end up either being scavenged by the complex staff, with what they didn't take, being set out for other tenants to claim, and everything unclaimed or taken ending up in the dumpster.

For some reason, I'm envisioning the scene in Zorba the Greek where the old lady dies and all of the village women descend on her room like vultures.

 

[seekermeister]

Apropos.

 

[badrobot]

Tattoo... ugh!

Put it between your toes.. haha.

 

[seekermeister]

Some people are easily amused.

 

[badrobot]

I don't know if you are asking for suggestions or you just want to have an endless discussion. The only realistic option is thru lawyers. Don't worry if they take your belongings themselves. You won't have time to worry about it by then. Your goal is to get that password to the right person at the right time. This is not a Mission Impossible movie, This is real life. Call your lawyers. Tell them to get everything they want later as long as they do what you pay them to do. End of discussion. Unless you want to start talking McGyver stuff next because I have a good one. In real life, I do know someone who keeps a password between his toes.

 

[Fixer1234]

In real life, I do know someone who keeps a password between his toes.

Now you tell me! You mean nobody else does that?

 

[seekermeister]

I don't know if you are asking for suggestions or you just want to have an endless discussion. The only realistic option is thru lawyers. Don't worry if they take your belongings themselves. You won't have time to worry about it by then. Your goal is to get that password to the right person at the right time. This is not a Mission Impossible movie, This is real life. Call your lawyers. Tell them to get everything they want later as long as they do what you pay them to do. End of discussion. Unless you want to start talking McGyver stuff next because I have a good one. In real life, I do know someone who keeps a password between his toes.

20 posts, half of which are mine...is that how you define endless? You seem somewhat intolerant of someone not readily accepting your advice.