Who owns your social media account after you die?

One day you will be asked to leave; leave this world. No prior notice, no preparations, no flights, nothing. And you will ‘pass away’ leaving everything behind you. All your tangible possessions will go to your immediate family members after you die but what about your Facebook account? Or your profiles on Twitter or LinkedIn? What will happen to your immortal digital shadow?

Facebook’s Legacy Contact

The problem is most acute for the world's biggest social network Facebook, which is now over 10 years old and has more than 1.5 billion active users.

Around 8,000 Facebook account holders die every day, with some estimates putting the number of profiles belonging to dead people as high as 30 million. Few days back, Fusion, after doing some statistical calculations gave 2065 to be the year when dead will outnumber living people on Facebook.

The social networking giant has now introduced the option to add a " target="_blank">legacy contact to your profile but few people are aware of it, according to Dr. Tama Leaver, senior lecturer at Curtin University's Department of Internet Studies.

"It is a limited function, it doesn't mean that you get control of someone's account, it only means you can post a message after they pass away." Once the legacy contact posts a final message, the profile is then memorialised by Facebook.

These profile pages often become digital tombstone after a person dies where friends and family members can come and post messages on their wall. If there are inappropriate or abusive messages, the legacy contact can remove the ability for anybody to post on the page.

Twitter

While most other social networks won’t touch your profile unless specifically asked to by a family member or an agent of law enforcement, Twitter will delete accounts after six months of inactivity,

Twitter will work with a person authorized to act on behalf of an estate or with a verified immediate family member of the deceased (with both requiring a government-issued ID). To deactivate an account, Twitter needs the username of the deceased, a death certificate, a written explanation, a current address and the relationship to the deceased.

LinkedIn

For removing an account from LinkedIn you will be required to state your relationship to the deceased first and those without a close relationship cannot have the account removed.

LinkedIn will work to delete an account so that the username and password no longer work and the deceased individual’s profile is removed from the site. If you are taking action in this area, you will need to know the deceased member’s name, the company he or she worked at most recently and provide a link to his or her profile. It’s also helpful if you can provide LinkedIn with the member’s email address.

There is also a way to export the deceased user’s connections in case you have a need to contact them in the future, which can be useful for small businesses if an owner or key partner passes away.

Drawing digital Will

There is an ongoing debate over the ownership of “digital assets” and the laws are still catching up with the times. There is no unanimity as to who can own responsibility for your digital life. Some say family members should be allowed, yet others have concerns about confidentiality. There are crucial legal but also practical implications which come into play when loved ones are allowed to access previously password-protected accounts.

Maybe, drawing a will is the answer or making provisions as to who could legally assume responsibility for your accounts could help streamline the process, as well as leaving an instruction letter with your wishes, account names, and updated passwords.

Or as Dr. Lever says, “in the same way that you have conversations about what you leave behind, it's good to have that conversation about what you want to happen with your social media stuff."

"That's even more important when you are discussing your email because often the vital things your family needs will be stored in your email account somewhere."