Identity at the Center #378 - Death and the Digital Estate (DADE)
Oct 6, 2025
In this insightful discussion, Dean Saxe, Principal Security Engineer, and co-chair of the DADE Community Group, shares his passion for digital estate planning. Mike Kiser, Director of Strategy at SailPoint, brings a unique theological perspective on identity and cultural implications. Heather Flanagan, founder of Severe Cal Consulting, discusses the need for practical guidance on managing digital assets. Together, they explore the challenges of planning for digital estates, legal complexities, and the future of digital identity, including the ethical considerations of AI and memory.
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Community Group First, Standards Later
- The Death and Digital Estate (DADE) community group exists to map legal, cultural, and technical gaps before writing specs.
- Dean Saxe emphasizes the group's mission to understand the problem space before prescribing solutions.
Courtroom Deepfake Used For Sentencing
- Dean Saxe described an Arizona case where a family used AI to create a deepfake of a murder victim during sentencing.
- He expressed discomfort and highlighted society's lack of readiness for such uses of posthumous likenesses.
Digital Estate Is Much Bigger Than You Think
- Digital estate includes all created content, accounts, metadata, and evolving AI-driven likenesses.
- Mike Kiser warns the estate keeps growing as technology (like AI recreations) creates new forms of posthumous representation.