Earlier this month, a civil court in Gandhinagar recognised stored digital data in an iCloud account as “property” and part of a deceased person’s estate. The case arose after the deceased man’s family was unable to access his locked iPhone and the linked iCloud account. They said it contained “valuable personal data of emotional, sentimental and practical significance” to them, including photographs, videos, documents, voice notes and contact lists. Increasingly, such cases are part of a larger shift in which courts are using succession laws to govern the new frontier of digital estates, while dealing with privacy concerns. To access the man’s phone, his family contacted Apple. The company informed them that under its terms of service, which contain a Digital Legacy clause, it could assist in recovering the cloud-stored data. But, this could happen only if “a court order containing specific declarations” formally appointed a legal representative who was authorised to act on behalf of the deceased.…