Sunday, October 5, 2014

When You Die: Who Controls Your Online Accounts?

Philosophers, the devoutly religious and the just plain curious have long pondered the subject of life after death. But, thanks to the Internet and social media, living online after dying is a virtual reality — one fraught with legal pitfalls.
The central question is: Who controls a decedent's online accounts? A dead person's Google or Facebook account generally will outlive them. But what if a family member wants access to the accounts for sentimental, testamentary or financial reasons?
Seeking to address the issue, Delaware in August expanded fiduciaries' access to decedents' online accounts. Executors have the option of transferring emails and other online information to the decedent's relatives.
That recent law has raised privacy concerns from the State Privacy and Security Coalition, a trade association composed of 20 technology, communications and media companies, including Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), Google and Facebook.
Google Inactive Account Manager | New
feature Will Work After Death
Allowing executors access to the accounts violates the privacy of the deceased and any still-living third parties, including doctors, lawyers, paramours and the like, they say. Allowing access to these accounts could be opening up a Pandora's box.
There's little upside for tech companies hosting the online accounts of the dead. "There's no money in it for them," said Edward McCaffery, a professor at University of Southern California Gould School of Law. "You give the information to the wrong person, you (the Internet host) could be sued."
As a better alternative, companies point to a 2011 Rhode Island law, which requires executors to obtain a court order before they are allowed access to the online accounts of the dead.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Facebook already kidnaps identities of the living. They retain data that they refuse access to by those to whom it belongs, those who created it. Stop using Facebook. They are criminals.