Summary table of European regulations

Recital 27 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of personal data provides that “the regulation does not apply to the personal data of deceased persons. Member States may provide for rules regarding the processing of personal data of deceased persons”.

The devolution of digital assets depends on the law applicable to the succession, as defined by European Regulation No 650/2012 in the States participating in the regulation.

Act No. 2016-1321 of 7 October 2016 for a Digital Republic.

• Principle of extinction of rights over personal data upon death;
• Unless the deceased had given advance directives concerning access to those data, their retention, their erasure, disclosure, etc.¹

In the absence of advance directives given by the deceased, the heirs may request restricted access to the deceased’s accounts, provided that they concern the organisation or settlement of the succession, the deletion or updating of the user account, or are akin to family memories.

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate)

Yes

Planning (help with drafting advance directives…)

No

• No specific legislation
• But there is important case law laying down a principle of survival of rights over personal data and of transferability to the heirs. The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe (Bundesgerichtshof)² delivered a landmark decision in 2018 allowing the heirs to access the Facebook account of a deceased person, treating the user contract of a social network like any other asset of the estate (in other words, the Facebook account would be transferable to the heirs like any other contract or document).
• By way of exception, agreements may provide that the rights or contracts are not transferred to the heirs, but the corresponding general terms and conditions are without effect.

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

The heir or heirs automatically become owners of all digital assets, whatever their content (professional, personal).

No

-Art. 2-terdecies(1) of Legislative Decree No. 196/2003 makes it possible to obtain – in accordance with Art. 15 of the GDPR – access to all the data of the deceased “stored” by the controller.

-Under the Act of 10 August 2018, No. 101:

• Principle of survival of the data subject’s rights after death
• Unless the deceased expressly prohibited the post mortem exercise of his or her rights by his or her successors in title, by a written declaration communicated to the controller of the personal data. (Court of Bologna, Section I, order of 25 November 2021)

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate)

Yes

The National Council of Notaries has presented a short guide to the legal regime of “digital inheritance”: https://www.notariato.it/it/notariato/eredita-digitale/

No

Organic Law 3/2018 on the Protection of Personal Data and the guarantee of digital rights (Art. 96 of the LOPDDGDD) and Art. 2 of the Código de la Privacidad.

• Principle of survival of the data subject’s rights after death: the heirs or other authorised persons may access the digital accounts and personal data of the deceased, amend them or delete them.

• Unless the deceased expressly prohibited it during his or her lifetime (in a will, for example).

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate)

Yes

The most practical way of managing digital inheritance is to include specific instructions concerning digital assets in an open, notarial will. This ensures that the heirs know how to act and that the wishes of the deceased are respected.

No

Art. 411-10.6 CCCat

• Principle of extinction of personal data: in the absence of provisions made by the deceased, the wish for the digital profiles to be deleted or extinguished is presumed. No tacit authorisation of management by the heirs.
• Possibility of appointing a “digital executor”.

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate)

yes

No

Law No. 58/2019 of August 8 (Ensures the implementation, in the national legal order, of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.)

The rights provided for in the GDPR relating to personal data of deceased persons, covered by the previous paragraph, namely the rights of access, rectification and erasure, are exercised by whomever the deceased person has designated for this purpose or, failing that, by their heirs.

Data subjects may also, under applicable law, specify the impossibility of exercising the rights referred to in the previous paragraph after their death.

• In other words:

• Principle of survival of rights: the heirs may access the digital accounts and personal data of the deceased;
• Unless the deceased expressly prohibited it during his or her lifetime or designated another person to exercise those rights.

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes

On the same terms as the other assets of the inheritance

No

• Existence of a regime that strictly regulates access to the personal data of the deceased:

The Personal Data Protection Law contains an explicit rule concerning deceased persons. Article 8 of the Georgian law on personal data protection allows the processing of a deceased person’s personal data (a) on the usual legal grounds, (b) unless close relatives have prohibited it, (c) after a period of 30 years from the death, or (d) where this is necessary to exercise succession rights. This means that relatives and estate administrators have clear legal channels, but also limits³.

Georgia has rules governing what happens to a person’s digital data after death, but there is no single law on the “succession of digital assets” that overrides the ordinary rules on succession and data protection. The outcome is determined by a combination of (1) the Civil Code (succession law), (2) the Georgian law on personal data protection and (3) other sectoral laws (for example, electronic communications).

Succession is governed by the Civil Code. Property (in the broad sense) passes to the heirs under the Civil Code, either by will or by statutory succession; this framework applies to all assets capable of being inherited. If a digital asset has proprietary or economic value and can be transferred, the rules of succession apply. However, digital assets, such as social media accounts, cryptocurrencies and digital files, are not explicitly mentioned in Georgian legislation⁴.

Yes.

In Georgia, the role of the notary in digital inheritance is indirect but important, depending on how the digital assets are classified and transferred. As indicated, there is no separate law on “digital inheritance” in Georgia. Consequently, the ordinary rules on succession laid down in the Georgian Civil Code apply, with the notary acting as the central authority responsible for supervising the succession process⁵. Since “digital assets” (emails, social networks, crypto wallets, online accounts, digital property rights, etc.) are not excluded from the definition of property, they may form part of the estate.

The notary’s involvement then depends on the nature of the asset: in the case of digital financial assets (cryptocurrencies, digital wallets) that are identifiable and inheritable, the notary records them as estate assets and may certify their transfer to the heirs. However, practical access (private keys) must be arranged by the heirs themselves; the notary cannot override the laws on confidentiality or data protection. The law on personal data protection (Art. 8) limits the processing of the data of deceased persons, unless it is necessary for succession purposes. The notary does not obtain the passwords or private keys: the heirs must provide them or obtain access by lawful means. Platform policies (Google, Meta, Apple, etc.) often require a court decision or an official certificate of inheritance issued by the notary in order to release account data⁶.

No.

No electronic notarial system yet directly manages “digital estate transfers”, although digital signatures and electronic notarial systems (in accordance with the law on notaries) can be used to formalise declarations⁷.

No specific regulation

The UK is actively working on legislation (in particular the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill) which will make a meaningful difference to the transfer of digital assets on death. But no comprehensive statute yet resolves all categories of digital data/accounts (email, social media, cloud files, etc) across all providers and underlying rights of access. So in practice, estate planning remains important to ensure the testator’s wishes are carried out, ie list accounts, passwords, legacy instructions, and nominate who should be the “executor” for digital data.

No

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes

No specific regulation

-

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

No

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes

The notary carries out inheritance proceedings as a court commissioner

No

No specific regulation

“Since there are no particular rules governing the succession of digital assets, we must start from the principle that the general rules of succession laid down by succession law apply”⁸.

The notary is competent to settle the succession, but the distribution or transfer of digital assets is generally not part of the succession procedure conducted by the notary⁹.

Estonia has a good infrastructure, which forms the basis of an “ecosystem” capable of handling digital assets within succession processes¹⁰. The e-Notary system allows notaries to carry out these procedures digitally. Estonia has a well-developed electronic identity (e-ID) system and the X-Road (X-tee) data exchange layer enables secure data transfer between government agencies. The Estonian legal system provides clear rules on inheritance, and the laws governing data protection and registers (such as the Personal Data Protection Act) ensure the secure handling of information. However, digital assets (for example, cryptocurrencies, social media accounts) are not yet covered by Estonian succession law. The conditions for putting in place future legal frameworks that could formalise the inheritance of digital assets and accounts are in place, but the legislation does not yet exist¹¹.

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

No

No

No specific regulation

By the request of the heirs the "rights and obligations attached to the data" can be the subject of probate in Hungary.

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes

Only for the request of the heirs; if they do not indicate subjects of digital inheritance in the probate documents, the notary will not be involved.

No

No specific regulation.

The relatives or heirs of the deceased may individually contact the data controller and arrange the transfer or erasure of the data. No legal basis is currently provided for in national legislation¹².

No regulation.

No

The Latvian notariat operates two platforms for storing and managing client data: DigiNotary, a platform for scheduling and organising online client appointments, in videoconference format, and for storing and managing client information. This includes the clients’ contact details and the list of documents issued to them (the latter being visible only to the client).

“NIIS” (in English: Internal Information System of Notaries) – a platform for checking client data, updating data, obtaining data from public registers and drafting documents.

No platform for the transfer of personal data and digital assets is currently in use¹³.

No specific regulation

The fifth book of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania (Inheritance), as well as other sources of Lithuanian law, does not mention the inheritance of digital assets. In other words, the institution of digital asset inheritance is currently not directly regulated in Lithuania, either in the Civil Code or in other legal acts. On the other hand, to a certain extent, the inheritance of digital assets should still be possible in Lithuania, even though it is not clearly and comprehensively regulated by law.

It is believed (this opinion can be found in legal doctrine and scientific articles) that in Lithuania, the possibility of inheriting digital assets arises from the principle of universality of inheritance enshrined in the Civil Code, and already now, in Lithuania, at least in theory, it is possible to inherit either the digital property itself (if it meets the requirements for an object of property rights) or the author's rights to the digital property (if such digital property meets the criteria applicable to an object of intellectual property).

Another opinion, which is also correct to a certain extent in the relevant context, is that inheritance of data contained in personal accounts — such as email, social media, or digital library accounts — is not governed by the provisions of inheritance law, but rather determined by the agreements or terms of use established between the user and the service provider. For example, many platforms allow users to designate individuals who may manage their accounts in the event of their death.

Yes

If the heirs were to apply to a notary and submit documents proving the deceased person’s property rights to certain digital assets or the author's rights to the digital property, the notary could issue a certificate of inheritance.

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

No

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

No

No

No specific regulation

Digital assets are not regulated in succession law in slovenia, even not in private international law.

No

No

No specific regulation

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes

If the notary acts as a commisioner of the court he/she will issue the succesion certificate

No

No specific regulation.

In the absence of specific and comprehensive regulation in Switzerland concerning what happens to digital data and assets after death, their fate is determined by a combination of principles of succession law, the law of personality, data protection law and, to a large extent, the general terms of use (GTU) of online services. Transmission, where it takes place, rests on indirect and analogical legal foundations.

The general rules of succession law and, where appropriate, of data protection law should be applied, taking into account the nature of the asset or the data.

Yes

In Switzerland, the notary may take part in digital transmission, mainly in the event of death, although there is no specific regulation detailing the notary’s role in this particular field. The notary’s involvement stems from his or her general functions in matters of succession and from his or her duty of care.

No

No specific regulation.

The deceased person's social media accounts remain as they are. The deceased person's electronic government accounts are closed, and their electronic signature is revoked.

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes¹⁴

No specific regulation.

Contracts concluded with online services may contain provisions limiting the transfer of digital data and assets to third parties after death

Ordinary legal regime (follows the classic devolution of the estate).

Yes

The role of the notary in the process of transmitting the inheritance may consist in obtaining the necessary information on the existence of digital data and assets and in issuing a certificate of the right to inherit the corresponding digital data and assets. In this case, the object of the inheritance may be rights arising from certain contracts as well as digital assets or data having the characteristics of property.

No