Facebook: Ok to Name Account Manager For When a User Dies
February 12, 2015
photo credit: facebook website screenshot via photopin (license)
As I’ve previously written, digital property presents unique challenges in estate planning. What happens with your digital life when you die or if you are in a coma?
Facebook announced a new feature today that will permit users to provide a contact who can manage the user’s page after the user’s death. Or users can instruct Facebook to permanently delete the account after the user’s death.
A legacy contact can’t access private messages or delete embarrassing photos. But this contact can become a caregiver for the user’s digital tombstone and write posts, change the profile photo, and respond to friend requests.
If no legacy contact is registered, the page will be frozen when Facebook is notified of the user’s death.
To help your loved ones care for your digital property, I’ve have prepared a digital property inventory that you can download at no cost.
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