End of Digital Life after our Physical Life

In the future, we will invariably die two deaths: The first will be physical and the second, and potentially more noticeable death will be digital (Facebook memorializing, stagnant Twitter accounts, lost passwords). Just recently, Twitter established a policy to handle accounts after the death of a user. Family members and close friends can now petition for the removal of a loved one’s account, after filing the right paperwork.

According to the new policy page, requests must be sent to the site along with:

1. Your full name, contact information (including e-mail address), and your relationship to the deceased user.

2. The username of the Twitter account, or a link to the profile page of the Twitter account.

3. A link to a public obituary or news article

If the paperwork checks out, Twitter can opt to either delete a deceased user’s account, or create an archive of the user’s tweets for family members. Similarly, Facebook’s deceased user policy, which was put in place in October, includes an option to deactivate. Alternatively, the policy also offers to keep the account open as a digital memorial, meaning that the user’s profile is still visible (only) to friends, though all status updates and contact information have been removed.

Jeremy Toeman, who is the CEO and founder of Legacy Locker–a site that acts as a digital safe  for things like Web site log-ins, and messages to family members that can be accessed after a person dies–thinks Facebook’s relationship requirements just aren’t good enough. In a post on Legacy Locker’s company blog Toeman notes:

“This policy lacks the concept of desired intent. What if an individual wanted their Twitter stream archived (and not just by the Library of Congress)? What if another user wanted it wiped out (a challenge with any service, we acknowledge) completely? What about any situation wherein the desires of the user who dies are in conflict with those who support them, or a conflict within the surviving family members?”

Facebook will not just give your next-of-kin access.  They clearly state that it’s against their Privacy Policy to do so.   Furthermore, the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act prevents the disclosure of stored communications unless there is a court order.  This means litigation.

So, with these 2 lives, Physical and Digital, time has come when we would be required to have the formalities to end the digital life !!You never know, maybe we would soon have e-will (to pass the digital estates) like Adsense revenues, Followers, Subscribers and Fans to be transfered to someone, mentioned in the will.

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