What Happens To Your Online Accounts When You Are Gone?


BANGALORE:  Usually a will is used after a person dies and people might have decided that who will get their property after they leave this world.  But ever thought of mentioning the Facebook or Gmail password in the will? The relatives might be willing to access deceased’s digital account, but people may not like their partner or your parents to read all messages or mails.

The Uniform Law Commission approved a plan that would allow loved ones to access the dead person’s digital accounts, unless specified otherwise in a will. The loved one can only access but not control the account. The legislation would have to be adopted by the legislature to make this a law in a state.

In case this becomes a law, person's online life could become a part of estate planning to decide what to do with physical possessions.  A dead person’s online stuff can have equal importance as an estate for the loved ones.

The online possessions of a famous person for instance, the letters of politicians or the notes of writers are precious for academic study. By giving away or donating such content to a museum or other institution, family may benefit greatly.

Karen Williams of Oregon sued Facebook so she could access the Facebook account of her 22-year-old son Loren after he died during a motorcycle accident in 2005 reports AP.

 Sometimes some people share their passwords with a family member or a trusted friend. But when they use the account with the shared password they technically become illicit.

Theonline companies have made their own way out. Facebook, will memorialize accounts by allowing already confirmed friends to continue to view photos and old posts.

 Similar to Facebook, many other social networking sites like Yahoo users agree when signing up their account expires with their death and Google offers its own version to delete or share the account of a person with a selected person if the person doesn't log in for a particular time.

However the courts are not convinced by the ideas that the companies has come up with.