{"id":847764,"date":"2026-08-06T04:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T04:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/847764\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T04:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T04:10:25","slug":"u-of-m-researchers-studying-digital-legacy-planning-before-death-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/847764\/","title":{"rendered":"U of M researchers studying \u2018digital legacy planning\u2019 before death \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of researchers at the University of Manitoba wants adults to take the cloud they leave behind into special consideration when they envision heaven and their afterlife.<\/p>\n

Led by Cecile Latulipe, the new computer science department project has a self-imposed mandate to better understand and improve \u201cdigital legacy planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern society is very good at avoiding death. We put our graveyards far away from our cities. We offload our caring of the dead to funeral homes and such,\u201d graduate student researcher Simon Wermie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, it\u2019s not surprising that the same would be true for our digital information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wermie has spent the better part of the summer, as well as the last year, studying death in the digital era.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern society is very good at avoiding death.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is part of the Winnipeg-based trio that is actively recruiting Canadian residents aged 18 and up to complete an online survey about their virtual assets, spirituality and legacy planning \u2014 or lack thereof.<\/p>\n

Participants are asked about the size of their digital footprint, from gaming to social media accounts, and if they\u2019ve set up an inactive account manager on Google or another platform with a similar option.<\/p>\n

An inactive account manager allows someone to choose ahead of time what happens to their data if they stop using their account.<\/p>\n

The research team, including undergraduate researcher Lara De Leon, is also interested in perceptions about post-mortem privacy and the ethics of chatbots modelled after someone who has died using their texts and other personal information.<\/p>\n

One section in the 32-question survey asks users if they would ever want to be represented by a \u201cDeadBot,\u201d a generative ghost, after they die \u201cso that the loved ones you leave behind can chat with a representation of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people aren\u2019t aware of this part of estate and legacy planning at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latulipe is the principal investigator for the U of M Research Ethics Board-endorsed initiative that has collected about 100 submissions to date. The exploratory study launched at the end of May, although Latulipe and Wermie\u2019s shared interest and collaboration predates the project.<\/p>\n

The duo recently conducted interviews with 15 Canadian adults aged 55 and older to learn how they want their personal data to be dealt with after they die.<\/p>\n

Only 40 per cent of respondents indicated they engaged in some form of digital legacy planning, such as drafting a physical list of passwords with instructions about what to do with their accounts or identifying the equivalent of a power of attorney for their Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people aren\u2019t aware of this part of estate and legacy planning at this point,\u201d Wermie said, citing their early findings and the caveat that recruits, who were alerted about the opportunity via social media, on-campus posters and older adult-focused mailing lists, likely signed up based on their interest in the topic.<\/p>\n

Catherine Wreford, 46, is co-writing her obituary and creating an ever-growing catalog of other content \u2014 both physical and digital \u2014 to leave her children and other loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be remembered as somebody that fought until they couldn\u2019t fight anymore, and that is what I\u2019m doing right now,\u201d the mother of two said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRUTH BONNEVILLE \/ FREE PRESS <\/p>\n

Catherine Wreford has done a fair bit of physical and digital legacy planning.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In 2013, five weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Wreford was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She drafted a traditional will in the immediate aftermath, but she said her wishes have evolved alongside her relationship to social media.<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg-based performer regularly records videos of herself and uploads the good, the bad and the ugly-crying. Sharing highlights and lowlights has become a form of community building and personal therapy, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to know that they\u2019re not alone,\u201d Wreford said as she described her motivation to post content about her diagnosis, divorce and other events in her unpredictable life.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s been approached by strangers in grocery stores, airport terminals and other public spaces who want to thank her for her vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Wreford\u2019s reach grew significantly after she won Amazing Race Canada in 2022<\/a> with her best friend Craig Ramsay under the Team Broadway banner \u2014 a nod to their respective careers as international actors, dancers and singers.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDANIEL CRUMP \/ BELL MEDIA
\nCatherine Wreford and Craig Ramsay won Amazing Race Canada in 2022.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Facebook launched its initial memorial feature in 2009 to allow active users to flag a profile of a late loved one so their online friends do not receive birthday notifications and other sensitive updates.<\/p>\n

Wreford said she\u2019d like a \u201cremembering\u201d badge, established with a legacy contact feature in 2015, to be placed on her Facebook profile. At the same time, she said she\u2019s realistic about the rapid evolution of technology, and as a result, grief in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

She keeps a journal filled with special notes about her accounts, but Wreford said learning about U of M\u2019s digital legacy research has prompted her to consider appointing an official \u201cdigital heir.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research team has been reviewing advanced health-care directives \u2014 legal documents outlining one\u2019s preferred medical care before they become sick or ill \u2014 as a potential blueprint for a template to help people better prepare for death in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal is to create a flexible \u201cdigital directive\u201d system, Wermie said. The researcher said he envisions a shift in estate planning so an individual\u2019s data is seen as an extension of them and it is protected like their other assets.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

Recent polling conducted separately by Ipsos and the Angus Reid Institute, in 2022 and 2023, respectively, suggests roughly half of Canadians have a valid will.<\/p>\n

The Angus Reid Institute found Manitobans were the least likely to report they had up-to-date wills compared to their counterparts in other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Maggie<\/p>\n

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
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Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A team of researchers at the University of Manitoba wants adults to take the cloud they leave behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-847764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}