Sure,
you have a lot to do today — laundry, bills, dinner — but it’s never
too early to start planning for your digital afterlife, the fate of your
numerous online accounts once you shed this mortal coil.
Facebook,
Google, Twitter and other sites have different policies on dealing with
dead users. Some states are also considering laws that would
automatically give loved ones access to, though not control of, their
dead relative’s digital accounts, unless otherwise specified.
Unless
you take action, you might not like the outcome: Would you want to give
your spouse automatic access to your email correspondences? Should
parents automatically be able to browse through a deceased child’s
online dating profile?
Now
that you’re mulling your eventual demise, here’s a look at how some of
the biggest Internet companies deal with deceased users’ accounts and
what you can do to control your information.
Google
The
company behind Gmail and Google Plus has a tool that lets you decide
what happens with your account after you die or become inactive online
for another reason, such as moving to a deserted island off the grid
with no Internet access. The tool is called “inactive account manager.”
You
can choose to have your data deleted after three, six or 12 months of
inactivity. Or you can choose someone, such as a parent or a spouse, to
receive the data. The tool covers not just email but also other Google
services such as Google Plus, YouTube and Blogger.
Before
deleting data, Google will send a warning to a secondary email address
or a phone number if you have provided one. This, of course, won’t help
if you’re dead. But you can also have that warning go to a loved one.
Google’s inactive account manager
Facebook
The
world’s largest online social network doesn’t give relatives access to
dead people’s accounts. Instead, loved ones can request for your account
to be “memorialized” if you die. This means no one will be able to log
in or modify any settings, such as adding or removing friends or
deleting content. In addition, Facebook won’t show the account in its
“people you may know” section for suggesting friends and won’t send
birthday reminders.
Privacy
settings from when you were alive will carry over, and those can’t be
changed. So if friends were able to post to your account’s Timeline,
they’ll still be able to do so. The Timeline posts will be viewable by
the same people who were able to see those posts before. Friends will
also be able to send private messages, as long as they were able to
before, even though no one will see them.
Facebook’s page on deleting or memorializing accounts
Twitter
Twitter
will deactivate your account if contacted by a family member or a
person authorized to act on behalf of your estate. For this, the person
will need a death certificate. Because many people don’t use their real
names on Twitter, the company will also want a “brief description of the
details that evidence this account belongs to the deceased,” its policy
states.
After 30 days, a deactivated Twitter account is permanently deleted.
To
respect the wishes of loved ones, Twitter says it may also remove
images of deceased individuals that circulate on the site. The policy
applies only in limited circumstances and was implemented recently,
after some users sent altered images of Robin Williams to his daughter
Zelda after the actor committed suicide in August.
The
policy was also used to remove gruesome images of the beheading of
journalist James Foley. The company’s CEO Dick Costolo said last month,
in reference to the Foley images, that Twitter “is actively suspending
accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery.”
Twitter contact page for family members of the dead
Posted by : Gizmeon
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