Death and the Internet

When people die, they leave certain things behind, including all their online profiles, email accounts, and social media information. While some sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have policies related to death, accounts often remain dormant until deleted due to inactivity or family or friends take action.

E-mail

Gmail^[1] and Hotmail^[2] allow the email accounts of the deceased to be accessed, provided certain requirements are met. Yahoo Mail will not provide access, citing the No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability clause in the Yahoo terms of service.^[3] In 2005 Yahoo was ordered by the Probate Court of Oakland County, MI to release emails of deceased US Marine Justin Ellsworth to his father, John Ellsworth.^[4]

Facebook

Facebook's policy on death is to turn the deceased user's profile into a memorial, "as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who've passed."^[5] Memorializing of a profile involves: the deceased user no longer showing up in the "Suggestions" box on the right-hand side of the homepage; the privacy setting is altered so that only confirmed friends can view the profile and search for it; contact information & status updates are removed; no one is able to log into the account in the future.^[6]

In order to memorialize deceased person's account, a special contact form must be filled out. In this contact from, a proof of death must be noted, such as an obituary or news article. Both family members and non-family members are allowed to submit this form.

MySpace

MySpace will allow a memorial to be set up to honor deceased users.^[7]

Twitter

Upon request, Twitter can close accounts and provide archives of public Tweets for deceased users. Family members are required to submit a formal request to Twitter's Trust & Safety department.^[8]

Wikipedia

See also: Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians and Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/Guidelines

Users who have made at least several hundred edits or are otherwise known for substantial contributions to Wikipedia can be noted at a central memorial page. Wikipedia user pages are ordinarily fully protected after the user has died, to prevent vandalism.

YouTube

YouTube grants access to accounts of deceased persons under certain conditions.^[9]

See also

• TheDigitalBeyond.com
• MyDeathSpace.com
• Legacy.com
• Online identity
• Thanatosensitivity

References

1. ^ Accessing a deceased person's mail, http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14300 
2. ^ How to request data from a deceased user's account?, http://windowslivehelp.com/solution.aspx?solutionid=2aa89618-2244-4187-8383-39b5503587f5 
3. ^ http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html
4. ^ http://news.cnet.com/Yahoo-releases-e-mail-of-deceased-Marine/2100-1038_3-5680025.html
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ [2]
7. ^ How can you delete or access a deceased user's profile?, http://faq.myspace.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/369 
8. ^ http://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-violation/topics/148-policy-information/articles/87894-how-to-contact-twitter-about-a-deceased-user
9. ^ Solve a Problem: Deceased YouTube member, http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94458 

Further reading

• Cheng, Jacqui (2010-03). "Death and social media: what happens to your life online?" Ars Technica. Retrieved 2010-4-20.
• Silver, Paul (2009-02). "Death and Social Media" Paul Silver's Blog. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
• Wolf, Nadine (2010-04). "The digital afterlife: what happens in social media when we die? Part I". Topics In Digital Media Spring 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-20
• Jeffries, Duncan (30 September 2009). "Preparing for the digital afterlife". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/30/digital-afterlife-email-facebook. Retrieved 1 June 2010. 
• Wortham, Jenna (July 17, 2010). "As Facebook Users Die, Ghosts Reach Out". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/technology/18death.html?_r=1. Retrieved 20 July 2010.