Google allows users to plan their digital afterlife

Google has launched a new service allowing you to plan your digital afterlife.

Its "Inactive Account Manager" allows users to decide what happens to their data after they die - or become inactive online.

You simply choose a timeout period after three, six, nine, or twelve months of inactivity and from there you can direct Google on what to do with your Gmail messages, Blogger posts, Contacts, and YouTube accounts.

Reporter with the technology website Silicon Republic Elaine Burke said that it is only a matter of time before other internet giants, such as Facebook, follow suit.

"A lot of these social networks have taken these things into account, because they have been operating for some time now and people have deceased," she said.

"I think what Google have done is that they have made it really simple, they haven't made it so that you have to send in a death certificate because what they are asking users to do is to consider it now themselves."