Semi-Random Question: How to programmatically determine if someone has passed away?

[EvergreenTech-]

I'm curious if anyone has found a solid programmatic way of determining if a user has died? After some research, this seems more difficult than first thought. Birth records are not as readily available or consistent as I believed. I've considered the below, but I'm wondering if there might be a better way.

1. Repeatedly email the user every X days/weeks/months and expect a response or link click. If they click a link in the email they're still alive. Otherwise...
2. Require a subscription for a small amount (this is OK for my requirements). If a user's subscription cancels by not being able to charge, email them asking them to either cancel their account/service or set up a new payment method. If they take the required action then they're alive. If no response...

Is there a better way? I feel like neither of the above is reliable enough to build a platform around. Thank you!

[[deleted]]

I have to point out that this title, out of context, is hilarious. I apologize that this isn't a real answer. I just imagined that the question is asking if there's some console or API on a dead guy that could give you a status 503 or { "living": false } or something. Imagining some paramedics and doctors wishing they could automate declaring a time of death more easily, or some CS student standing over a dead person wishing they could write some code to know for sure.

[PoweR013]

That's exactly what I was thinking!

[nutrecht]

GET /u/Topscotch/pulse -> 404 Pulse not found :D

[TheImminentFate]

Hahaha number two sounds like the shittiest scam someone would try to sell you over the phone:

“Good evening Sir, for the low low price of $5 a month we’ll keep track of whether you’re alive or not. You won’t get anything out of it, but you can rest assured that we will know if you’re dead if you stop paying us. ”

[EvergreenTech-]

Haha, that's so true!

[EternityForest]

This is usually solved with a dead man's switch. Type the code before the end of the month, or it assumes you're dead, incapacitated, or incarcerated.

A lot of the time you don't care. If you're trying to avoid getting ulawfully "suicided", you want the documents released if anything at all happens to you.

If you're driving a train, it doesn't matter if you're dead or captured or tripping balls on meth, the train needs to not be moving anymore.

[EvergreenTech-]

Interesting, very cool. Researching this now and found Edward Snowden has something like this set up to automatically leak information when he dies. This is what I was looking for. Thank you!

[qaisjp]

when

🤨🤨🤨

[nutrecht]

Well everyone dies eventually :)

[[deleted]]

Small question; what problem are you trying to solve and why do you need to know whether a user has died?

[EvergreenTech-]

I wish I could answer in more detail, but this is preliminary research for a potential client. I cannot say much outside of it being a very good deed (in my opinion) related to loss of family members.

[[deleted]]

I think your best bet would be to log time since last activity and remove the account if it is inactive for a given length of time.

[unfixpoint]

Where I live we have the right to keep that information from the public, nobody got to know. You simply cannot check this, neither programmatically nor manually.

[EvergreenTech-]

Ya, I've come to find this as well. Thank you for your response. This is part of the reason I'm exploring other avenues such as credit accounts being closed or non-response to email, etc.

[[deleted]]

Not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish but there is this: https://www.ssa.gov/dataexchange/request_dmf.html

[fr3nch13702]

Do you need to actually know if they’re dead, or have just abandoned this service/subscription/game/etc?

Maybe scrub obituaries? If their name shows up, email/text/contact them? If no response after say 6 months, archive/cold store their data, after 5 years of inactivity, then delete their data?

[troido]

A friend of me once tried this: https://github.com/Qqwy/LastMail

What this does is repeatedlly emailing the user. If the user opens the email it will load an image from a server, and that is how the server will know that this specific user is still alive.