Death, Data, and You

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

Say you die, right now. What will happen to your clients' websites, and data? Do you provide your clients with sufficient access to your server(s) so they can retrieve all their data? Did you register their domain name? Do they have the password to access it? Have you changed passwords recently, did you forget to inform them about it?

Have you prepared your clients for a loss like that? How?

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

Who cares - I'd be dead.

Ok, seriously - I have all passwords in a password manager with a master password that is written down in a safe that other people have access to in the office if needed.

Some domains are on my account, but the Whois info is under the client, so they would have recourse to get it. Most of the business are in this area anyway, so I see two possible scenarios:

1) I die from sickness or something - close family and a couple other people that know my business will be able to access backups from my web server, home server, or DVDs in the safe, and then contact clients, etc.

2) Chicago gets nuked which wipes out me and my family and close people that know my business. 90% of my clients would also fall in this geographic region, so I wouldn't have that many people looking for data anyway.

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

Matt, are you planning something we should know about? SmileyCentral.com

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

It actually is a good question, though. It's something a lot of freelancers and small business owners don't think about.

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

pr0gr4mm3r wrote:
It actually is a good question, though. It's something a lot of freelancers and small business owners don't think about.

Clients aside, how many people provide for their own family and loved ones?

Especially if you are "young" you do not expect to ... die ... SmileyCentral.com

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

It's funny you chose that icon...I've been close to that fate before.

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

Heh. Wouldn't you like to know... Wink

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

I catered for this eventuality!

I have a wire linked from my heart to my PC with a heart monitor. If my heart fails all my work gets posted to clients and any forum posts I have open automatically subm

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

really?

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

My passwords are pretty well documented in a safe place but I don't know how to access any of Jeevesbond's stuff. I'll have to bug him to document that sometime.

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

Heh, that would make me nervous. Like my wife comes to me and asks, "What will happen to your computer data if you die? You should store that in a place where I can access it...by next Wednesday......at 9pm." Laughing out loud

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

Wednesday 9PM ... "I've cooked your favourite dinner..."
Laugh

Or did you mean Wednesday Morning 3AM?

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

They have: 5 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

Hi,
Thanks for sharing the vies on the interesting topic............. Smiling

Michael James Swan's picture

He has: 400 posts

Joined: May 2008

I have often thought about this, more lately though. But yes, it is a good question.

There is only one other who has access and that is one of my closest friends and advisors but his more like a partner businesswise anywway.

~ Mike

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