High priority — do today
- Primary bank(s) and credit cards
- Life and health insurer
- Primary email provider
- Primary cloud storage (where your photos live)
- Stockbroker / mutual fund platform / demat
Your Rights · Section 14
Decide who controls your data after you — nominate now
Section 14 of the DPDP Act 2023 lets you nominate any individual to exercise your rights — access, correction, erasure, withdrawal — on your behalf if you die or are unable to. Most Indians don’t know this right exists; almost no website volunteers it. Here is the free template that designates your nominee in writing.
What this is
Why nomination matters
Most digital services run forever after you die. Photos sit on servers, accounts auto-renew, marketing keeps going out, profiles stay searchable. Without a nomination, your family has to send death certificates, court orders and follow each company’s ad-hoc process — which often goes nowhere.
Section 14 of the DPDP Act fixes that. You name a nominee in advance, in writing, with each Data Fiduciary that holds your data. When the time comes, your nominee can step in and exercise every right you would have had — request a summary, demand erasure, withdraw consent — without a court hearing.
Doing this for 5 services takes 15 minutes. It is the single highest-impact use of the DPDP Act for a normal Indian.
Copy, paste, send
The Section 14 nomination email
Subject: Nomination under Section 14 of the DPDP Act, 2023
To the Grievance Officer / Data Protection Officer,
[Company name]
I am a Data Principal under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
Under Section 14, I hereby nominate the following person to exercise my
rights under this Act in the event of my death or incapacity:
• Nominee full name: [name]
• Relationship to me: [spouse / parent / sibling / child / friend / other]
• Nominee contact email: [email]
• Nominee contact phone: [+91 ...]
• Nominee proof of identity (any one): PAN / Aadhaar last 4 digits /
passport number — to be verified when they invoke this nomination.
This nomination shall apply to all personal data of mine that you process,
and supersedes any previous nomination I may have made with you.
Please link this nomination to my account using:
• Registered email: [your email]
• Registered phone: [+91 ...]
• Account / customer ID: [if known]
Please confirm in writing that this nomination has been recorded and that
your team will action requests from my nominee when produced with reasonable
proof of my death or incapacity.
Sincerely,
[Your full name]
[Date]
Send it from your registered email. Repeat for every meaningful service: bank, insurer, primary email, primary cloud, telecom, social media. Keep a personal copy together with your will / power of attorney.
Who to nominate where
A practical priority list
Medium priority — within a month
- Telecom and broadband provider
- Social media accounts you actually use
- UPI / wallet apps with stored cards
- Subscription services with auto-renewal (OTT, gym, SaaS)
- Hospital patient portal if you have chronic records
Common questions
FAQ
What happens to my data after I die if I don’t nominate?
It depends on each company’s default. Some delete the account after a notice period, some never delete it, some give partial access to legal heirs only with a court order. Nomination removes all that friction — your nominee can exercise rights immediately.
Can the nominee see all my private data?
The nominee can exercise your rights — request a summary, ask for erasure, withdraw consent. They cannot, on their own, log in to your account or read your messages. The nomination is a legal designation, not a password handover.
Can I nominate more than one person?
The Rules permit one nominee per Data Fiduciary. You can pick different nominees for different services (e.g. spouse for banking, sibling for social media). Update each one whenever your life changes.
Can a company refuse my nomination?
Only on reasonable grounds — for example if the nominee is a minor or the form is incomplete. They cannot refuse simply because they have no internal process; the right is statutory.
How do I revoke or change my nominee?
Send a fresh nomination email overriding the previous one. The latest dated nomination on file is what applies.