Unlike European data protection legislation, the protection granted by OC 11 does not end with the death of the data subject. In the event of death, the rights of the deceased may be exercised by their legal successor. This means that the legal successor may, for example, access the deceased's personal data, request changes and/or corrections, or report misprocessing of the deceased’s personal data.

To do so, the requester must prove both their identity and their status as a legal successor of the deceased.

Legal succession must be evidenced by public or publicly certified documents, such as a certificate of inheritance or a European Certificate of Succession.

Special case: Community of heirs

If the submitted document indicates that the deceased has multiple legal successors, i.e. a community of heirs, the exercise of rights becomes somewhat more complicated.

As a rule, a community of heirs can only exercise the rights of the deceased person jointly. An exception applies to requests for access or copies of the deceased’s personal data: in this case, each heir can submit an individual request, which will be processed and answered individually.

All other rights must be exercised jointly, either by:

• the requester submitting written consent from all other heirs together with their proves of identity, or
• a legal representative (e.g. a notary) acting on behalf of the entire community of heirs, supported by powers of attorney from each heir.