What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die?

Before we get in to the solution, here are a couple of resources that will help you avoid the dilemma of handling digital assets. Now most people probably don’t want to consider this, but this is a FREE service that helps you take inventory of all your digital assets and assign an heir to access them when you pass away. Entrustet

Here is another site that has some good info on the subject, including a list of companies that will help you store your digital account information at: The Digital Beyond

In general here are a few options of what will or can happen with inactive accounts:

1) They can close the account if they know the deceased’s username and password. This may be difficult because friends and relatives may not be aware of all accounts their deceased loved one owned.
2) Depending on the company they may close any account that is inactive for an extended period.
3) If none of the above are options then nothing will happen and the account will stay in limbo for as long as the online company is around.

Here are the policies of some of the more popular online sites when it comes to dealing with the accounts of deceased users:

Facebook Memorial Policy
Please report this information here so that we can memorialize this person’s account. Memorializing the account removes certain more sensitive information like status updates and restricts profile access to confirmed friends only. Please note that in order to protect the privacy of the deceased user, we cannot provide login information for the account to anyone. We do honor requests from close family members to close the account completely.

MySpace’s Policy
How can you delete or access a deceased user’s MySpace profile?

We’re very sorry to hear about your loss. If you’re the next of kin (mother, father, spouse, domestic partner, son or daughter) of the deceased, we can delete the MySpace profile for you.

For the sake of our users’ safety and security, however, we’ll need you to Email us proof of death, such as an obituary or death certificate at accountcare@support.myspace.com. Please write us from your personal Email address and tell us how you’re related to the deceased and include the deceased user’s MySpace friend ID along with your specific request to delete the profile or remove content.

Unfortunately, we can’t let you access, edit or delete any of the content or settings on the user’s profile yourself, but we’ll be sure to review and remove any content you find objectionable.

If you have access to the Email account tied to this MySpace profile, you can also retrieve the password through the Forgot Password link located on the MySpace homepage.
If you wish to create a memorial for your loved one, you can set up a group page to honor them and link it to their profile.

A MySpace spokeswoman said that MySpace will give access to the executor of estate and in the case of a minor will give access to a legal guardian who has provided evidence of guardian relationship and the death.

Since public profiles remain public when someone dies, a site called MyDeathSpace aggregates the profiles of deceased MySpace users.

Yahoo’s Policy
Statement from Yahoo Spokesman Jason Khoury:

“The commitment Yahoo! makes to every person who signs-up for a Yahoo! Mail account is to treat their email as a private communication and to treat the content of their messages as confidential. In the event of a user’s passing, representatives of deceased users can contact Yahoo!’s Customer Care department to shut down the deceased user’s account and terminate billing on premium accounts.

In regards to accessing deceased users’ accounts, federal law restricts the ability of Internet services to disclose electronic communications of their subscribers. Internet users who want to be sure their email and other online accounts are accessible to their legal heirs may want to work with their attorneys to plan an offline process for such access as part of their estate planning.”

Yahoo! Customer Service
8am – 5pm M-F (Pacific Time)
866-562-7219
408-349-3300

If you call, press 2 when prompted. If you are using free mail services press 1. The don’t press anything after that. Hold the line until you are transferred to a person. If you press a 3rd button for the free services, the recording will tell you that you have to use help online. However, if you wait you will be transferred to someone who will be able to help you, even with free e-mail accounts.

The E-Mail address for Yahoo! customer care is
cc-advoc@yahoo-inc.com

GMail’s Policy
If an individual has passed away and you need access to the content of his or her mail, please fax or mail us the following information:

1. Your full name and contact information, including a verifiable email address.

2. The Gmail address of the individual who passed away.

3a. The full header from an email message that you have received at your verifiable email address, from the Gmail address in question. (To obtain the header from a message in Gmail, open the message, click the down arrow next to Reply, at the top-right of the message pane, and select ‘Show original.’ The full headers will appear in a new window. To obtain headers from other webmail or email providers, please refer to http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22454#)

3b. The entire contents of the message.

4. Proof of death.

5. One of the following: a) if the decedent was 18 or older, please provide a proof of authority under local law that you are the lawful representative of the deceased or his or her estate or b) if the decedent was under the age of 18 and you are the parent of the individual, please provide a copy of the decedent’s birth certificate.

Postal Mail:

Google Inc.
Attention: Gmail User Support
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Fax: 650-644-0358

After we’ve received the above information, we’ll need 30 days to process and validate the documents that you’ve provided. If you need access to the address sooner, in accordance with state and federal law, it is Google’s policy to only provide information pursuant to a valid third party court order or other appropriate legal process. Please note that our ability to ability to comply with these requests varies according to applicable law.

Microsoft Windows Live/Hotmail Policy
It is MSN/Windows Live Policy is that they wont reset the password of accounts of deceased or incapacitated individuals. Instead, after the required paperwork has been submitted and validated, they may need to send the requested account information on a CD via USPS.

Here is there standard email they send out after the appropriate paperwork has been submitted:

Dear Mr. __________,

We are in receipt of the fax that you sent on 11/18/2010. Thank you for sending in all necessary documents to move forward with your next-of-kin request. We will now proceed with the authentication process. Once your request has successfully completed the authentication process, a CD will be shipped to you. While we will endeavor to complete your request as soon as possible, we are currently experiencing a high volume of next of requests and are unable to estimate a completion date due to the complex nature of the authentication process. If there are any problems with the authentication process, a Compliance Manager will contact you by email.

PLEASE NOTE: While this process allows for the release of the account contents to you, we will not provide or reset the password for this account. This policy is in place to protect the privacy and security of all Hotmail users.

Thank you for your patience.

Kind Regards,
Compliance Team

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