Digital inheritance in Peru: what happens to your accounts, social media and crypto when you die?

Peru has no digital inheritance law

We found no Peruvian law in force that deals with “digital inheritance” by name: what happens to your email, social media, cloud photos or crypto when you die. The Civil Code dates from 1984 and mentions none of this. The new regulation of the Personal Data Protection Law (D.S. 016-2024-JUS) does not either: we searched its text for the words “fallecido”, “muerte”, “heredero”, “herencia” and “sucesor” (deceased, death, heir, inheritance, successor), and none appears.

That does not mean there are no rules. It means the general rules apply, and many questions have no written answer.

The general rule: the estate passes on assets, rights and obligations

Article 660 of the Civil Code says:

“Desde el momento de la muerte de una persona, los bienes, derechos y obligaciones que constituyen la herencia se trasmiten a sus sucesores.”

(From the moment of a person’s death, the assets, rights and obligations that make up the estate pass to their successors.)

The article does not talk about digital things. Our reading is that digital things with money value (crypto, platform balances, a domain, rights over content that earns income) fall under “assets” or “rights” and pass to the heirs like any other asset. This follows from article 660, but it is not written in those words, and we did not review court rulings that confirm it.

If someone dies without a will, the heirs are set by the rules of intestate succession.

Crypto: the problem is access, not the law

Even if crypto is part of the estate, the law gives heirs no way to open a wallet whose keys nobody knows. If the deceased kept it on an exchange, what happens depends on that company and its terms, which are not Peruvian law. If your question is about fraud or who to complain to about a crypto platform, see crypto scams.

That is why planning matters more here than with other assets. You can leave a specific digital asset as a bequest (legado). Article 756 allows it within your freely disposable share:

“El testador puede disponer como acto de liberalidad y a título de legado, de uno o más de sus bienes, o de una parte de ellos, dentro de su facultad de libre disposición.”

(The testator may, as a gift and by way of bequest, dispose of one or more of their assets, or part of them, within their freely disposable share.)

But note article 757:

“No es válido el legado de un bien determinado, si no se halla en el dominio del testador al tiempo de su muerte.”

(A bequest of a specific asset is not valid if the testator does not own it at the time of death.)

If you leave “my bitcoin” as a bequest and sell it before you die, that bequest never takes effect. The difference between a bequest and an inheritance is explained in what is a bequest.

A will also covers things that are not money

Article 686 says:

“Por el testamento una persona puede disponer de sus bienes, total o parcialmente, para después de su muerte, y ordenar su propia sucesión dentro de los límites de la ley y con las formalidades que ésta señala. Son válidas las disposiciones de carácter no patrimonial contenidas en el testamento, aunque el acto se limite a ellas.”

(By a will a person may dispose of their assets, in whole or in part, for after their death, and arrange their own succession within the limits and formalities set by law. Non-financial instructions in a will are valid, even if the will contains only those.)

So you can use a will to say what you want done with your social media or your files, even if they have no money value. What the law does not guarantee is that a foreign platform will follow that instruction: that depends on its own rules. See the types of will to choose the form.

Private email and messages: the heirs decide, together

Here an old rule does fit the digital world. Article 16 of the Civil Code protects “las comunicaciones de cualquier género” (communications of any kind):

“La correspondencia epistolar, las comunicaciones de cualquier género o las grabaciones de la voz, cuando tengan carácter confidencial o se refieran a la intimidad de la vida personal y familiar, no pueden ser interceptadas o divulgadas sin el asentimiento del autor y, en su caso, del destinatario. […] Muertos el autor o el destinatario, según los casos, corresponde a los herederos el derecho de otorgar el respectivo asentimiento. Si no hubiese acuerdo entre los herederos, decidirá el juez.”

(Letters, communications of any kind and voice recordings that are confidential or concern private and family life cannot be intercepted or disclosed without the consent of the author and, where relevant, the recipient. […] Once the author or recipient has died, the heirs have the right to give that consent. If the heirs cannot agree, a judge decides.)

What this means for you: publishing or sharing the private messages of someone who died requires the heirs’ consent, and if they disagree a judge decides. The same article says a ban on posthumous publication set by the author or recipient cannot last more than fifty years after their death.

Note: this article is about disclosure, not about access to an account. It does not require any company to hand over a password.

The deceased’s privacy has a similar rule in article 14:

“La intimidad de la vida personal y familiar no puede ser puesta de manifiesto sin el asentimiento de la persona o si ésta ha muerto, sin el de su cónyuge, descendientes, ascendientes o hermanos, excluyentemente y en este orden.”

(Private and family life cannot be exposed without the person’s consent or, if they have died, without that of their spouse, descendants, ascendants or siblings, each excluding the next, in that order.)

Article 14 does not speak of heirs but of a list of relatives in a fixed order.

The deceased’s personal data: the regulation gives heirs no route

Your rights over your personal data (access, rectification, cancellation, objection) are personal. Article 61 of the Ley 29733 regulation says:

“Los derechos de información, acceso, rectificación, cancelación, oposición y tratamiento objetivo de datos personales sólo pueden ser ejercidos por el titular de datos personales, sin perjuicio de las normas que regulan la representación.”

(The rights of information, access, rectification, cancellation, objection and objective processing of personal data can only be exercised by the data subject, without prejudice to the rules on representation.)

Article 63.1 lists who may exercise them: the data subject, their legal representative, or a representative expressly authorised. It does not mention heirs or relatives. In practice, this regulation gives you no clear route to ask a company, as an heir, for the data it holds on your deceased relative. For your own data while alive, see ARCO rights.

What platforms do is not law

Google, Meta, Apple and crypto exchanges have their own tools: legacy contacts, memorialised accounts, account closure requests on death. These are each company’s terms of use. They can change at any time, Peruvian law does not set them, and we do not cite them as sources. Use them alongside a will, not instead of one.

Foreign residents

If you live in Peru and your accounts or crypto sit on platforms based in other countries, other countries’ rules may also apply to your estate, and platform terms often point to foreign law. This page does not analyse which law applies in those cases.

What this page does not cover

• Whether a digital inheritance bill exists in Congress, and its status. We did not check Congress’s official tracker. If you read about one, a bill is not law.
• The text of Ley 29733 itself, which we did not re-read for this page.
• Peruvian court rulings or decisions of the national data protection authority on accounts of deceased people.
• Tax treatment of inherited crypto.
• Copyright in photos, texts or videos the deceased published.