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Facebook accounts of dead people

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Media professional Poorvi Pratap was shocked when her former colleague Smita Rao's photo popped up on her Facebook page under the 'people you may know' tag, days  after the latter had committed suicide. Well aware of the reality, Poorvi knew for sure that she couldn't connect with Smita, but little did she know what happens to the Facebook account after one's death.

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"Later I got to know about the digital Will, where in you nominate a person to take ownership of your virtual property," says Poorvi, who is planning to prepare a will herself and bequeath her digital property to her husband.

Just like any other legal process, under the digital Will, the user names and password will be inherited by the beneficiary. If you are concerned about your digital possessions like emails, social media accounts, digital photos, videos and online banking records after you die, it is advisable to get a Will.

The immediacy of connecting with friends often makes us forget about the future. The intensity of networking and sharing withdraws us from going a step beyond the present. When one experiences something like Poorvi, it will be nothing less than an awakening. That seems to be happening now if you ask cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, who says, of late, people have begun treating their online property like any of their physical assets.

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"I first did a digital Will for a customer two years ago. Today, on average I get a dozen cases in a month. Still, India is in its infancy with regard to bequeathing online assets and there is a need to create an awareness. It is a challenge to handle digital assets after one's death as there is always a question as whether it should be deleted or should be handed over to someone," he says.

The digital Will allows the next of kin of the person making the Will to access confidential mails, social networking sites and other digital property. The first step towards a digital Will is to create a digital inventory - an index of online assets and then approach an advocate to start the legal process.

Duggal says it is an absolute necessity to make a Will given the sensitivity attached to emails and other digital valuables. Moreover, digital will has been made legal under the IT Act and is accepted in courts too.

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More than making the Will what's utmost essential is to be well aware of how to deal with the accounts immediately after one's death. Many email accounts fail to exist after nine months of inactivity. But with ever-changing policies, some social networking sites allow the person to live forever, virtually.

Facebook's head of security Max Kelly wrote in 2009: "We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it's important when someone passes away, their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized."

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Memorializing accounts has made many people live in the virtual world long after their death. Memorialized profiles reflect that when someone passes away, they don’t leave the social network as people can continue to post on their walls and be connected. The account doesn't show up in search results or gets friend requests. But the deceased's privacy is protected by removing sensitive information like the contact details.

However, confirmed friends and relatives can post messages of condolences, but none gets the passwords unless it is decreed in the Will. Another Facebook option would be to delete the account which requires filling up an online form http://on.fb.me/KkM8eT.

In the same way, Google keeps up with its policy to protect privacy of people and hence the decision to provide contents of the deceased user’s email will be made only after a careful review.

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Apart from the death certificate, the representative of the deceased needs to provide a whole set of documents to prove his or her identity. Google warns that it is a lengthy process and also says that despite having all necessary documents, it’s possible Google could deny the request as it considers it to be totally its discretion. 

Unlike Google, LinkedIn has a unique way of dealing with the account. Upon receiving a request by the family of the deceased, LinkedIn will honour the account with an epitaph by creating a different font colour and placing a small Cross next to the name. That way, it makes the person live forever. And just like in Facebook, the person's name doesn't figure in search results.

When you fill in the LinkedIn form there are certain pieces of information one needs to provide including the URL of the person's profile, their primary email address and a copy of obituary or other evidence of the death and proof of relationship with the person.

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Could this be faked? In an online response, Dave, partner at the Minnesota Sign Guys, said: "Sure, but customer service will have a record of the member submitting the form."

Hotmail has been more obliging as it gives the option of shipping a DVD with the account contents, or closing the account. Mere closure would be done in three days while shipments take 5-7 days. If at all the verification process is incomplete, it's not mandatory for the company to say which of the documents failed to meet the criteria and one needs to submit a new set of documents again.

To get access to the emails of the deceased person, the process can be initiated by sending an email to msrecord@microsoft.com.

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Twitter allows family or friends to download a copy of public tweets and close the account of the deceased. The person needs to provide name and contact details, as well as establish his relationship with the deceased person. A request can be placed by writing to privacy@twitter.com.

Privacy seems to be Yahoo's top priority as it doesn't allow anyone to see the contents of a user's account and permanently deletes everything after getting the death certificate.

Though none of us want to think of death, it is a fact of life. It is a reality that our virtual data outlives us. So, for the sake of our friends and family, we need to plan for our digital lives, so that we live in their hearts just like how we live in the virtual world- forever.

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