Online After Death

Many people think about the online death of their loved ones who just passed away and wish that they could gain access to their information. Did you know that some sites do allow you to access your loved ones account after they pass? Here is some useful information regarding online life after death.

If your loved one has a hotmail or gmail account, you can order a CD of all their messages that they had in their account if you can prove you have the right to it. You will need to show them a death certificate and a copy of the power of attorney. Gmail will also require a copy from the deceased before they passed saying they could have access to their account.

If your loved one used facebook, you have the choice to either take down their profile or keep it and it will become a memorial. The memorial state doesn’t allow status updates, and will only let confirmed friends view the profile and leave comments.

Flickr will continue to keep their account public. If your loved one had any photos in their account that they had marked private, Flickr will not allow family and friends to access those photos.

Depending on the online company, they all have different ways to confirm that the loved one is truly deceased, and that the friend or family member requesting the access has a right to their information. There are many companies that offer an encrypted space to store their passwords and other account information to give the loved ones of the deceased access to such as a company called legacy locker.

Online living is such a way of life today that our loved ones may want to know what we wrote, thought, or did. Online death will soon become just as important as our physical death. Be sure to include instructions for your online life when making funeral arrangements. If you have more information regarding closure of online profiles please email me.