[xnorswap]

> I've often wondered about how to reliably take software actions after my death

This is actually fairly simple and well understood: leave instructions in your will.

"Notify <Provider> to delete my account" is a perfectly valid instruction to leave for an executor.

You could leave behind a password cache with a master password left in your will, but I suspect much of this still runs on trust. I'd imagine (I haven't tried), that "X has died, please take action Y" is a fairly reliable social engineering vector if you have a convincing "proof" that X has died.

It's worth noting that the executor isn't hard forced to carry out your wishes, the legal recourse for them not doing so comes from other beneficiaries ability to take legal action against the executor. If those other beneficiaries don't care much for enforcement, then you might prefer technical methods such as the submission.

[ryandrake]

I keep a "death README" with all of my online and offline account credentials and phone unlock codes, PII that might be needed to authenticate w/ various companies' services, copies of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care proxies and so on, copies of all vital docs like marriage certificate, birth certificates, home router SSIDs and passwords, information about doctors, health insurance, life insurance, all financial accounts and brokerages, approximate balances, bills and how to pay them, tax returns and how to file them, a list of recurring expenses and how to pay them, property w/ approximate values, and so on. A hardcopy is kept in our house where next of kin can find it if needed without knowing a safe combination, but casual robbers wouldn't stumble across.

[fragmede]

Why without the safe combination? Not to out myself but mines in a safe. If I'm dead I expect my next of kin to crow bar it open but if I'm not, I'd rather not have anybody else access that.

[echoangle]

The „X has died, please take action Y“ thing also only works if the service reliably knows that the account belongs to X. My executor can’t delete my HN account because he can’t prove it’s actually my account (without getting the password).

[ssl-3]

Can it not be cryptographically proven?

Leave a public key in your HN bio.

And leave a matching private key and validation instructions in your will.

If the keys match along with a death certificate, then: The account owner is validated as being dead.

[PeterisP]

It's not about it being impossible to cryptographically prove/validate it, but rather about services choosing to not attempt to try to validate it. They generally don't provide such an option, because it's tricky, somewhat manual, has certain costs and risks, and no benefit to the service provider.

If some law prescribes that after following a certain verification process, the operator is required to delete the account, then that legally mandated process would work, but in the absence of such a law literally no process can be sufficient, because the operators can and will choose to ignore it, no matter how reliable it is.

[echoangle]

If I prepare for it, sure. At that point, I can just leave my password though. I was responding to the point that you don’t need to leave the password because a death certificate would be enough.

[ssl-3]

Aye, indeed.

But maybe I don't want to leave my password behind because I'm weird that way or something, and instead I just want my account nuked.

Cryptographic proof of ownership by the dead guy + death certificate should allow for account nuking, without allowing for a third party to do something else with my account.

(Not that I'm worried about it, myself. In fact, I've found all of these dead man's switch/after-death automations pretty amusing every time I've seen them pop up in the past couple of decades.

I mean: When I'm dead, my HN/Google/whatever accounts will become idle, and I'm dead AF so I don't care if someone hacks the passwords some time later. It's a non-refundable one-way ticket for me.)