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Digital death and posthumous data: a glocal, relational perspective
1Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania.
Frontiers in Genetics
|August 12, 2026
Summary
Posthumous data decisions, including genomic data, require a relational, community-focused approach, not individual-only rules. A glocal lens helps navigate digital legacies ethically and practically.
Area of Science:
- Digital Ethics
- Genomic Data Governance
- Sociology of Death
Background:
- Digital technologies enable persistent posthumous presence (e.g., digital profiles, AI avatars).
- Existing frameworks for posthumous data often focus on individual rights, neglecting relational and community impacts.
- Genomic data reanalysis after death presents unique ethical challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a glocally situated, relational framework for managing posthumous data, including genomic information.
- To introduce a shared vocabulary for discussing digital death and posthumous lifespans.
- To develop practical guidance for ethical decision-making regarding posthumous data in genetics.
Main Methods:
- Phenomenological analysis of digital death as a lived, relational process.
- Argument for self-persistence through relations, amplified by digital and genomic data.
- Application of a glocal lens, considering global data capabilities within local death systems.
- Development of an action triage for posthumous data decision-making.
Main Results:
- Digital death is a hybrid online-offline process involving dying, mourning, and legacy.
- Posthumous data decisions significantly impact kin and communities, necessitating kin-sensitive consent.
- A glocal perspective reveals how global data infrastructures interact with local death practices.
- An action triage offers a staged approach to minimize harm in posthumous data use.
Conclusions:
- Decisions about posthumous data, especially genomic data, must be relational and community-aware.
- Ethical management of digital legacies requires integrating global capabilities with local cultural contexts.
- A glocally attuned, relational approach supports ethically coherent and clinically viable posthumous data practices.
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