Privacy with public access: digital memorials on quick response codes

Quick response (QR) codes on gravestones are a relatively new global phenomenon, and the actual number of them is unknown. The placement of a digital gateway on a physical stone is a new form of mediated middle region and a challenge to the classic public–private dichotomy, and this study discusses in detail the implications of the QR-coded gravestones. While some cemetery visitors might consider the gravestone and the digital content private, the visible QR code is also an invitation to the broader public in the shared physical space. Building on privacy as a contextualized matter, the business interests of gravestone makers as well as 30 Danish memorials are analyzed. In a general shift toward the digital in contemporary memorial culture and a growing tendency to online sharing of the emotionally important, QR codes on gravestones are but one example of the ongoing negotiations of privacy and sharing in our digital society.