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Will Google help access my deceased relative's data?
Loujain writes:
My mother recently died and we would like to be able to use her email so we can reset or close some financial accounts. Can Google help us unlock her phone?
Thank you for any help.
Hi Loujain. I'm sorry your mother has passed, and I hope your family is doing well and supporting each other. Times like this can be tough and emotionally draining. If you need another online ear to talk to, I'm here.
I'm both glad and sad that you asked this question, which I've received several times. It's to be expected as death is part of life, as cliche and macabre as that sounds.
Before we go any further, we all should take a few moments to prepare so we don't leave our family members in the same situation. I've written a few simple things we should do to prepare our own account data to make it easier for our family.
The short answer is that Google can not help you and your family unlock your late mother's phone. Even if the company wanted to do it (it doesn't), Google can't help you unlock any phone because it doesn't have access to the password, fingerprint, or any other way to unlock the phone's screen.
Unfortunately, that probably means all the data on the phone is lost forever. It's encrypted and locked away — the only thing you can do is contact Google and request the account data.
It may not seem that way now, but this is good. We want the devices that manage our lives to be safe and secure and should expect companies like Google to try and make them this way.
This hits very close to home because I recently went through the same thing. My father passed away, and I was forced to contact Apple because his phone was locked. The process isn't the same between Apple and Google, but it's close. If your mother accessed her Google account in the past two years, Google can help you.
You're going to need the death certificate at a minimum. Apple required the death certificate and a court order noting I was the inheritor of my late father's data. I got the latter through a clerk at my local courthouse.
Google states, "In certain circumstances we may provide content from a deceased user's account. In all of these cases, our primary responsibility is to keep people's information secure, safe, and private. We cannot provide passwords or other login details. Any decision to satisfy a request about a deceased user will be made only after a careful review."
According to someone who went through this process, Google provided an archive of photos, Drive documents, Calendar entries, and contacts. The company was not able to provide email messages, text or chat messages, or YouTube user data. In addition, Google helped remove the activation lock so the phone could be factory reset.
This may be helpful, even if it doesn't provide exactly what you need. You can get the process started by visiting this link.
