What happens to you when you die?
I don’t know (I hope that you weren’t really anticipating me to have a solution), although I am in a position to shed some mild on what happens to you on social media as soon as you move on.
If you’re the kind of individual that has a penchant for TLDR’ing articles, I have included a fairly infrographic by WebFX under which will contact on most of what I am masking:
XKCD estimate that Facebook’s useless customers will probably outnumber their residing ones by round 2065 and the complete web site will be abandoned a someday after 2100. Scary thought that, although of all of the social media accounts, Facebook supplies essentially the most refined vary of choices with regards to what happens to that account after you die. Basically the destiny of your profile may go 4 methods:
- The profile stays untouched, un-accessed, and unreported – due to this fact it’s enterprise as normal. This implies that folks can see your wall posts, tag you in pictures, point out you in a standing and so on.
- A shut member of the family can petition Facebook to deactivate a deceased consumer’s account.
- A cherished one can report the demise to Facebook and upon receipt of proof of dying Facebook will swap the lifeless consumer’s timeline to a “memorial web page.” Doing this will imply solely present buddies can publish to the web page or tag the person in pictures. Important: Once a web page has been ‘memorialised’ you can not revert it again to an everyday account.
- Lastly, customers might acquire entry to a lifeless person’s profile in considered one of two methods:
- Through information of the useless consumer’s password (although Facebook just isn’t actually a fan of that)
- Through a court docket order, although Facebook’s phrases of service are fairly clear about this and it’s pretty unlikely that you will have the opportunity to entry a liked one’s account after their demise.
Among social media websites, Twitter has one of many easiest policies relating to the loss of life of a consumer.
Put merely, Twitter will work with an authorised consultant of the deceased to deactivate your account.
According to their coverage, if your liked one has died, deleting their account is all that you will find a way to do – you can not entry it your self because it legally stays property of the proprietor.
While your profile and all your tweets will disappear into the web nether, your username will equally be protected and different customers will be unable to declare it.
In addition to this Twitter additionally actively hunts out and deletes inactive accounts after S months (simply in case you’re planning on hiding out in the course of nowhere for some time).
Google and their plethora of providers (Gmail, Google +, Google Drive and so forth.) are all accessed by way of a single Google account. As such, their insurance policies concerning deceased customers seem to be the identical for all.
Frustratingly (a minimum of when it comes to writing a weblog put up), there are not any exhausting and quick guidelines relating to what they’ll do with your account after you die.
What we do know is that Google will delete your account after N months (or no matter time you have beforehand set with the ‘inactive account supervisor’). This is maybe essentially the most elegant method to deal with inactivity or demise as designated customers (up to 10) will be mechanically notified at this level and will have the opportunity to entry and obtain your information in the event that they like.
Otherwise the account and all the knowledge that’s contained inside it will disappear.
If you end up within the place of getting to deactivate a liked one’s account you can accomplish that by way of offering Google with a loss of life certificates and the total header and content material of an e mail from their Gmail account.
As with every part there’s an exception, and Google will “in uncommon instances present the account content material to an authorised consultant of the deceased person”.
LinkedIn is just going to deactivate an account as soon as a person has been reported as deceased. You’re not going to have the opportunity to entry a deceased individuals account except “LinkedIn has a superb religion perception that disclosure is permitted by legislation” or they want to accomplish that to adjust to a authorized ruling.
You can deactivate the account of a liked one by way of offering LinkedIn with that members title, your relationship to them, the corporate they labored for, a hyperlink to their profile, and their e mail deal with.
A phrase of warning, as soon as the account is deactivated the username is up for grabs and there’s nothing to cease somebody from claiming it.
Guess what? You may be as inactive as you like and your Pinterest account will stick round for so long as Pinterest continues to be a factor.
Pinterest states that “as a result of they need to respect the privateness of our Pinners, we are able to’t give out any private or log in data”. There seem to be no exceptions to this.
However, via the usage of official documentation (a dying certificates and proof of your relationship to the deceased) you can have somebody’s account deactivated.
I guess the important thing takeaways from this are that each social media website has a unique means of dealing with deceased customers, and whereas you is likely to be in good well being in the intervening time, it’s not a foul concept to make a plan for your knowledge within the occasion of your passing.
Unsurprisingly ‘digital legacy administration ’ companies like Entrust.internet and My Wonderful Life have sprung up in response to this and will assist social media customers make dying preparations.
What happens to you when you die?
I have no idea (I hope that you weren’t actually expecting me to have an answer), though I am able to shed some light on what happens to you on social media once you pass on.
If you’re the sort of person that has a penchant for TLDR’ing articles, I have included a pretty infrographic by WebFX below which will touch on most of what I am covering:
XKCD estimate that Facebook’s dead users will likely outnumber their living ones by around 2065 and the entire site will be deserted a sometime after 2100. Scary thought that, though of all the social media accounts, Facebook provides the most sophisticated range of options with regards to what happens to that account after you die. Basically the fate of your profile could go four ways:
- The profile remains untouched, un-accessed, and unreported – therefore it’s business as usual. This means that people can see your wall posts, tag you in photos, mention you in a status etc.
- A close family member can petition Facebook to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
- A loved one can report the death to Facebook and upon receipt of proof of death Facebook will switch the dead user’s timeline to a “memorial page.” Doing this will mean only current friends can post to the page or tag the user in photos. Important: Once a page has been ‘memorialised’ you cannot revert it back to a regular account.
- Lastly, users may gain access to a dead user’s profile in one of two ways:
- Through knowledge of the dead user’s password (though Facebook is not really a fan of that)
- Through a court order, though Facebook’s terms of service are pretty clear about this and it’s fairly unlikely that you will be able to access a loved one’s account after their death.
Among social media sites, Twitter has one of the simplest policies relating to the death of a user.
Put simply, Twitter will work with an authorised representative of the deceased to deactivate your account.
According to their policy, if your loved one has died, deleting their account is all that you will be able to do – you cannot access it yourself as it legally remains property of the owner.
While your profile and all your tweets will disappear into the online nether, your username will similarly be protected and other users will be unable to claim it.
In addition to this Twitter also actively hunts out and deletes inactive accounts after 6 months (just in case you’re planning on hiding out in the middle of nowhere for a while).
Google and their plethora of services (Gmail, Google +, Google Drive etc.) are all accessed via a single Google account. As such, their policies regarding deceased users appear to be the same for all.
Frustratingly (at least in terms of writing a blog post), there are no hard and fast rules relating to what they’ll do with your account after you die.
What we do know is that Google will delete your account after 9 months (or whatever time you have previously set with the ‘inactive account manager’). This is perhaps the most elegant way to handle inactivity or death as designated users (up to 10) will be automatically notified at this point and will be able to access and download your data if they like.
Otherwise the account and all the information that is contained within it will disappear.
If you find yourself in the position of having to deactivate a loved one’s account you can do so through providing Google with a death certificate and the full header and content of an email from their Gmail account.
As with everything there is an exception, and Google will “in rare cases provide the account content to an authorised representative of the deceased user”.
LinkedIn is only going to deactivate an account once a user has been reported as deceased. You’re not going to be able to access a deceased persons account unless “LinkedIn has a good faith belief that disclosure is permitted by law” or they need to do so to comply with a legal ruling.
You can deactivate the account of a loved one through providing LinkedIn with that members name, your relationship to them, the company they worked for, a link to their profile, and their email address.
A word of caution, once the account is deactivated the username is up for grabs and there is nothing to stop someone from claiming it.
Guess what? You can be as inactive as you like and your Pinterest account will stick around for as long as Pinterest continues to be a thing.
Pinterest states that “because they want to respect the privacy of our Pinners, we can’t give out any personal or log in information”. There appear to be no exceptions to this.
However, through the use of official documentation (a death certificate and proof of your relationship to the deceased) you can have someone’s account deactivated.
As promised here is the pretty picture (click for full size image):
In Summary
I guess the key takeaways from this are that every social media site has a different way of handling deceased users, and while you might be in good health at the moment, it’s not a bad idea to make a plan for your data in the event of your passing.
Unsurprisingly ‘digital legacy management ’ agencies like Entrust.net and My Wonderful Life have sprung up in response to this and will help social media users make death arrangements.
If that was all a bit ‘too real’ for you, maybe this video of cute Kittens will help:
