Should families have access to the e-mail accounts of their deceased?

[BurtWorm]

Would you want your family to see your account if you died suddenly? Does it make you comfortable to think your ISP has the power to instantly disappear your e-mail, a power that no one else will have over your papers?




John Ellsworth is shown by his computer in Wixom, Mich., Thursday, Dec. 23, 2004 with a screen saver showing his son Marine Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, who died in Iraq (news - web sites) Nov. 13, 2004. As more of our personal lives go digital, family members, estate attorneys and online service providers are increasingly grappling with what happens to those information bits when their owners die. This week, John Ellsworth publicized his struggle to access the Yahoo e-mail account belonging to his son. Though Yahoo's policies state that accounts 'terminate upon your death,' John Ellsworth said his son would have wanted to give him access. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

[bluedonkey]

1. Yes,I think it would be

a good idea,well in most cases.I left an list of email and other contact info in my bank box.I would want my son to let people know what happened to me.Wouldn't want them wondering why I don't write anymore.
I also know my son's email and bank account info,but I would never violate his trust in me.Guess it depends on the relationship one has with their children.

[BurtWorm]

2. I will be gone, so I don't particularly care.

But imagining if my wife or daughter died (gods forbid), I think I would want access. I think there should be a window during which the family should be able to sort through the e-mail, just as they would sort through papers.

[Vanje]

3. If the son wanted Dad reading his email....

"Though Yahoo's policies state that accounts 'terminate upon your death,' John Ellsworth said his son would have wanted to give him access."

If the son wanted Dad reading his email, the son would've given Dad his password.

[BurtWorm]

4. So Yahoo has more of a right to do with them what they will

than the family? That's what gives me pause. Yahoo will just snuff it out. The family might be better able to honor the life. (Or they might just be snoops, but so what, now that the poor guy is gone?)

[arcos]

5. I really don't have a definite position here but...

He didn't have the choice, because he died...

[bunkerbuster1]

16. You nailed it.

If you want to assign passwords in the event of your death, well, get on it.

If not, I don't think that's a judgement call Yahoo should have to make.

[ChairOne]

24. Marvellously specious argument...

We *do* still have inheiritance processes right?

One might just as well as say that if the deceased wanted the heir to have his shirt, s/he would've given it to him/her.

LOL - that's why we call it INHEIRITANCE - precisely because it wasn't given before death.

(If you're still blinded by the potentially private nature of email (!), substitute "diary", or "unpublished manuscripts" or... for "shirt" above...)

[Az]

6. Yes, absolutely

Just as the family is able to accept all mail for the deceased they should be allowed access to their electronic transactions. Many of us have lives in the cyber community and if we were to pass our absense may cause distress to those we care about online. Just as the family contacts friends in the real world I believe they should contact the various online communities to let them know what has happened to allow for closure.

[BlueJazz]

7. The Family should not see his mail.

When you sign up for a E-mail service you read (or you should read the contract) ...If you don't want to abide by the contract rules than don't start the service.

I have my own server and therefore have people using my server for mail. If someone dies, I will not let anybody in the world see the
Email of the deceased. I don't want some wife (or husband) finding out that their spouse was cheating on them or anything else that might cause "Bad Feelings" towards their loved ones.

As I said...I don't allow ANYBODY to read another persons mail ....and that includes being Alive or being Dead.

Yahoo is right.

On Edit: I might want to point out something...
I have about 450 people who use my server (all with differant email addresses) ...Imagine if I got requests everyday to show the email messages of someone who died.
How do I know they died? Am I suppose to spend the day checking out if what somebody tells me is the truth or just a husband wanting to "check-up" on his girlfriend?
Now multiply that by the Millions of people on Yahoo and you see that the problem becomes impossibly complicated.

[sonicx]

8. Personally, i wouldn't want people reading them

no matter what i had in there.

[high density]

9. I think Justin's email account should remain private

If he wanted to allow his parents to access his email, he would have written his password down someplace.

I feel very sad for the family, but I have to side with Yahoo on this one. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call to other folks to write down their passwords if they wish for their loved ones to have access to their accounts after death. Putting them in your will would probably be the best thing to do.

[proudbluestater]

10. He was in a war zone. I feel if he wanted his family to have

access to his email, he would have given them his password in advance.

There are many people who do NOT want their email passed on after their death. I support Yahoo's position. At any time, the son could have forwarded the mail to his parents himself, but he chose not to. It should remain private.

[Fiona]

11. No

If he wanted his family to have access, he would've given them his password.

Why should his family be able to read his inbox and sent mail messages? I'm pretty sure I woldn't want MY parents reading all my incoming and outgoing messages.

His inbox has mail people believed they were sending to him, and him alone. I doubt they expected his family to one day read them.

Sorry, but the parents are way out of line here.

[sandnsea]

12. New tech lesson

Leave your email password with your other private belongings. And people have been reading the regular mail of the deceased since we've had mail. This isn't an invasion of privacy in that regard.

[sonicx]

13. i treat email way different than snail mail

sure you can hide snail mail you get, but there's always a chance your nosy brother/mom/cousin etc. will snoop around in your belongings to read it behind your back.

But I pretty much expect email to be secure from nosy folks. Thus, there's stuff there that's more private (and I don't mean just porn :D). Family should not see it unless i say before hand that they can. If i never get a chance to give permission, too bad.

[sandnsea]

14. Snail mail keeps on coming

If something comes after you're dead, somebody's going to open it. No mail is hidden anywhere when you're dead. There's no privacy when you're dead. I understand Yahoo's position, but people really shouldn't expect privacy after they're dead. It's naive.

[sonicx]

15. But that's the thing. Yahoo allows privacy after you are dead...

and they seem to be upholding it now. It's not naive to think your email is private if Yahoo's policy says they will uphold it post-death. It really sucks for the family, but i think the policy should be enforced.

as for snail mail, again, it's unsecure so there's nothing i can do about that if people look at it (i probably wouldn't mind that as much).

[sandnsea]

25. Not what I mean

Yahoo has a privacy policy in place, as it should to protect the privacy of its clients.

After death, an executor of an estate can often get legal orders to break all kinds of privacy contracts. If people are really concerned about keeping something permanently private, they need to take action on it. Don't naively expect anything to remain private after death, or ever really. That's all I'm saying.

[Piperay]

17. NO, dead or not I know I wouldn't want

my family reading my E-Mail. My E-Mail is only meant for the eyes of the ones it is addressed to and myself and I have a fit if I thought that it would be opened to anyone else after my death. It's an invasion of privacy, it's is wrong, just plain WRONG!

[Skittles]

18. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

it is a matter of privacy; if people want their loved ones to have access to their email they should state such in their will. PERIOD.
Or perhaps Yahoo could have such a provision when people sign up for their service.

[sbj405]

19. I wouldn't want my family to have my password.

I don't understand why they need his emails to other people (and other people's emails to him) to remember him by. They should have the emails that he sent to them, right?

I hope Yahoo stands firm on this.

I suppose this case gives us one more thing to add into our wills.

[DemBones DemBones]

21. Exactly right -- they have the e-mails he sent them, they don't need

the ones he sent to other people or the ones he received from other people.

Yahoo is doing the right thing and I hope the courts uphold Yahoo's policy over the grieving parents' desire. They are mistaken to think they have a right to this. Or are they contacting anyone he wrote letters to and requesting the letters?

[Jack_DeLeon]

20. If I want people to have access to my online accounts...

I will give them my login and password. Otherwise no.

[Name removed]

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[Solly Mack]

23. Part of me would want it...you're going crazy with grief. everything the

deceased has ever touched becomes all the more precious. Maybe there's something in those emails for the family members...they are grasping for anything...trying to understand. So, I see where they are coming from....

But the bigger part of me says NO. You don't violate people that way....not even in death.