What happens to your email account after you pass away? Does the account stay active forever? What about all your social media accounts? These questions can all spark concern for what happens to your digital presence after you pass. After all, you are no longer capable of managing your own accounts or providing the information contained within to someone else.
From another perspective, someone close to you may have passed away and you need to access their Facebook to archive all their pictures. What can be done if they did not leave a list of their passwords? How can you access their account? Gaining access to an account that isn’t yours can be a very difficult task, and sometimes even impossible.
In all of the above circumstances, digital accounts become another asset to include in your legacy plan. Many people plan for the future of their house/other physical assets after they pass. Most people don’t think about all the data that they have online and what will happen to it when they are no longer alive.
I’ve Passed Away; What Happens to My Accounts?
Nothing! Yep, that’s right. Nothing happens to your online accounts once you die, not immediately anyway. Service providers have no way of knowing if you are alive or not. As a result, your accounts will likely remain active. If an account doesn’t have any activity for a long period of time, a company might reach out to see what’s going on. In most instances though, your account will remain active and functioning until either the company has concerns (or someone reaches out to them on your behalf).
If that someone reaches out on your behalf to claim your account, a process of recovery can begin. This requires the person that reached out on your behalf to present evidence and explain why they want access to the account. Evidence could include a will or other legal document or a death certificate, but there may be other types of documentation accepted or required. Depending on the account type and circumstances, this process can be simple. In other circumstances, it can be extensive and may even require a lawyer.
How To Make Your Accounts Accessible
The easiest way to ensure someone has access to your account before you pass is to provide all your passwords. However, this option may not be appealing to you (or the most secure). Below are a couple of suggestions for making posthumous management of your accounts easier for your loved ones:
Utilize a Password Manager with Inheritance Features
Password managers are a tool that generates complex passwords and then will manage them for you on your devices. The password manager stores these passwords for you, and you can access them all with a master password you create.
A feature that is becoming common amongst password manager applications is password sharing. This feature allows people to securely share passwords with each other. It also allows someone to request a password to a shared account. You can configure the password manager to provide the password automatically if you respond to the request in a set amount of time.
This is extremely helpful for password inheriting. If you set up this feature now, someone can request your password posthumously. After the allotted time passes, they would be provided with the password. This is an easy and secure way to make sure only the people you want to have access to your accounts are able to access them post-mortem.
Set up a Legacy Contact
Verify if accounts you own will provide a legacy contact feature. Some companies (Facebook, for example) allow users to appoint a legacy contact. Your legacy contact will be given as much access to your account as the company permits. Essentially, this will be the person making decisions for the account in the future.
Appoint Someone to Get Access
You are able to decide who receives your belongings in your will. Why not also include who has the right to manage your accounts? Appointing someone to get access to your accounts can make it easier for your loved ones after you pass. Notifying the company that owns the account while you are still living or having the desired rights in writing are both tactics for providing posthumous rights. Instead of having to prove the desired manager’s relationship to you (or a good enough reason why they should have access), the person can provide their identity if they are appointed to act on your behalf.
Accessing A Loved One’s Account
Most of the time, it will be very difficult to get full control of someone else’s account. Companies take their privacy policies very seriously, and many privacy policies state that the company can only give full access to the account to the owner. If the owner has designated someone to be provided account information after they pass, the company may allow that person access.
But even when someone is designated to take over rights to the account, this does not mean they get access to the account as if it was their own. There are limitations to what they can do/see and different states have different laws when it comes to digital assets. Potentially, the law in the location of the deceased at their time of death may make it easier or harder to gain control of accounts posthumously.
Reaching Out to Gain Access
As stated above, most companies will not know the owner of the account has passed for some time. The first step in attempting to get access to a loved one’s account will be reaching out to the company responsible for it. Before doing this, you will want to have proof ready showing that you have legal rights to access the account.
You will be required to prove your relationship to the deceased or that you are the one authorized to act on behalf of the owner. Proof of death will be requested; a death certificate or an obituary will suffice. Along with these documents, any additional information you can provide on why you need the account will strengthen your claim.
Along with gathering proof of relationship/identity, it is best to do some research on the companies’ policy around inheriting accounts. For example, Yahoo will not provide access to an account unless it is the owner, no matter the circumstance. They will only allow a non-owner who has the right to manage the account to either keep it active or close it. Knowing the company’s stance beforehand can help you decide what approach you want to take. The account type absolutely plays a role in how difficult the process may be. A social media or email account recovery process will not be as difficult as trying to get access to something like a bank account.
After Reaching Out
After reaching out to the company, one of two things will happen. Either you will be granted stewardship of the account or you will be given one of the two options below:
Memorializing the Account
Some companies will allow you to memorialize an account. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow accounts to be memorialized. Some of the features differ between the companies, but essentially a memorialized account remains dormant. The account still has all its content and posts displayed, though only to the followers/friends of the account. All the content is preserved on the account, but no account will be able to follow/interact with the account that had not done so before the end of their life.
Deleting the Account
If a company concludes that you can act on behalf of the owner, they will allow you to decide whether the account should remain active or not. Companies whose policies say they won’t give access to the account to any non-owner will essentially result in a hold until further decisions are made.
These are the two standard options for most cases: Memorializing accounts will only apply to social media accounts while deleting the account entirely will apply to both social and email accounts.
It’s rare that a company will give you access to a loved one’s account as if it were yours. If you need full access (like in the case of a financial account), you will require a lawyer’s assistance.
Have a Plan
People pass away unexpectedly, so it’s always best practice to stay prepared. If you know that your digital presence is something that will be of interest to those closest to you, prepare your accounts for the future. Having a plan set before you pass away is the best way to make sure that those around you will be able to access your accounts in a timely manner.
When dealing with loved one’s accounts, make sure you prepare before reaching out to the account provider. Knowing your options will make the process easier to cope with. You may or may not require a lawyer, so doing your homework before starting the process will be best.
References:
"What to Do With Online Accounts After the User's Death" www.lifewire.com. Updated: 6/24/2019. Accessed: 3/11/2020
"What Happens To Your Email and Social Networking Accounts When You Die?" www.makeuseof.com. Published: 11/16/2009. Accessed: 3/11/2020