Social Media Rights After Death
With the number of Facebook users reaching one billion, the social networking site inevitably is intertwined with people’s everyday lives. In a previous blog post on Divorce Lawyers Chicago, I wrote about how social media can affect a divorce settlement. However, what people often fail to think about is how Facebook and other online accounts will be handled after their deaths.
Current issues regarding social media profiles of the deceased
With increasing frequency, family and friends are requesting access to their loved ones’ online accounts. Sometimes people simply want to have control of these accounts. Other times, people want to gain insight into the deceased’s online life. Considering the broad capabilities of sites like Facebook, where users can have private messages and interactions, access to a Facebook account has the potential to reveal a lot about a person. Unless it is previously discussed, there is no way to know if somebody would want his or her family to have access to these private aspects of their accounts.
However, as this is a relatively new legal issue, there are not always clear laws regarding how to best go about dealing with online accounts of the deceased. Many of the privacy laws that social media platforms have in place are meant to protect the living but don’t always account for users’ deaths. Although this is a national issue, I am only aware of five states that have laws regarding the topic. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, an executor gains power over email accounts. In Idaho, Indiana and Oklahoma, executors additionally gain access to social networking and blogging accounts. Currently, Facebook offers the option to memorialize an account. This option keeps the privacy settings as the user left them. Existing friends can still like and comment on existing posts, but the account cannot be edited or logged into, nor can it gain friends. Additionally, if requested to take down a deceased user’s profile, Facebook will oblige but will not reveal the user’s password.
How to protect your online profiles
Now, people house so much valuable information online. However, people often don’t think about writing down their login information for the sites they use. It is important not only to keep track of your online life, but also to know how to grant someone else access to this information if needed. Recently, it is more common to create a Social Media Will in addition to a traditional will. This can relieve others of the stress of contemplating what you would have wanted to become of your online life after death along with how to access these accounts. Here are some tips to keep in mind when creating a Social Media Will:
- Choose someone you trust as an online executor.
- Create a document with your online accounts, including the site names, usernames and passwords.
- Specify how you want the accounts to be handled, whether that means deleting them, changing the settings or anything else.
- Don’t state the access information in the will since it can become public information. Reference where to find the document in the Social Media Will.
If you have any questions about divorce or law, please contact me.
