9128 / What are digital assets?

Generally, an individual’s digital property or digital assets include any information that exists in digital form (whether online or stored electronically on a device such as a USB drive or CD) that are either created by or about an individual. According to the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Uniform Act), now enacted in the majority of states, a digital asset is simply “an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest,” but not the “underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.”¹

In more practical terms, digital assets can be categorized as either (1) personal digital assets (with no monetary value, (2) personal digital assets with real monetary value or (3) digital assets related to a business.

These may be stored either on a physical device or media (such as a computer, hard drive, smartphone, memory stick, etc.) or electronically in the cloud (including email, social media, and other types of online accounts). Collectively, these make up a person’s digital estate.

Personal Digital Assets (Without Monetary Value)

Many personal digital assets may have no monetary value, but hold a great deal of emotional value and preserve the memories, stories, interactions, and personal information of their owner. These include:

Any personal electronic files, photos, videos, commercial programs or applications, and other information stored on physical devices, such as computers, smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, hard drives, flash drives, memory cards, memory sticks, CDs, DVDs, and other digital media and devices.

Email and communications accounts, including Skype, iChat, FaceTime, WhatsApp, and other instant messenger (IM) programs, as well as related conversations, recordings, and other data.

Electronic information stored in a smartphone or online on a mobile phone account, including downloaded applications (apps), photos, videos, contacts, text or SMS messages, call history, and voicemail messages.

Social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, including content and interactions made through these accounts (e.g., writing, posts, feeds, comments, chats, and recordings).

Photo and video storage and sharing accounts, such as YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, Picasa, and PhotoBucket.

Online storage accounts, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

Online gaming accounts or applications (apps), including in-game purchases, virtual property, and avatars.

Personal blogs, websites, and Internet domain names.

Personal information, such as medical records and legal documents (whether stored on physical media or devices, on a website, or in the cloud).

Any other personal online information or accounts.

Personal Digital Assets With Real Monetary Value

There are also many personal digital assets that have real monetary value, including:

Money-management and financial accounts, such as online banking and investment accounts, PayPal, loyalty and rewards programs, and any other accounts with credit or value.

Digital (also known as virtual) currencies, such as bitcoin.

Intellectual property, such as copyrighted works, registered trademarks, and computer applications or programming code.

Revenue-generating assets, including websites, blogs, certain social media accounts, Internet domain names (whether live/hosted or inactive), art, photos, music, eBooks, and other digital property.

Assets related to personal online sales accounts, such as an eBay seller’s account.

Digital Assets of a Business

Digital assets related to a business—separate from personal digital assets with monetary value—may include:

Online accounts (including financial accounts) associated with a business.

Online businesses and sales accounts, such as an eBay, Etsy, or Amazon store, other commercial websites.

Business email accounts, mailing lists, newsletter subscription lists, or email lists containing your company’s clients.

Contact information, customer history, and account information of business clients.

See Q for a discussion of the importance of estate planning for digital assets and Q 9130 to Q to discuss the state and federal laws that now govern the disposition of digital assets.