Our whole lives are online, so we need to start thinking about how much of that will remain private after we die. If you’ve kept a low profile on Facebook your whole life, you’re likely want to remain so after you die. Here we take a look at how to state your privacy preferences for after you die.
Every minute, we share more than 2.5 million posts on Facebook, create over 300,000 tweets and send more than 204 million text messages. In the 21st century, we’ve kept up the tradition of continuing bonds with the dead because we can’t get away from them.
Most of us have dead relatives or friends in our phone’s contacts list, and some of us even have Facebook friendships with dead loved ones, old text messages from those no longer around and even ghostly Skype contacts. It’s not surprising that online privacy has become such a big issue for the dead when they never really leave the Web.
Should digital data be treated as private?
Under its current policy, Facebook only allows relatives to change an account into an online memorial or to delete it. It’s natural for those of us left behind to flick through old photos, remind ourselves of some of the inside jokes exchanged, or even trawl through the hordes of memes you’ve shared.
This might sound nightmarish to you if you’re hot on privacy, similar to the fears you had about your mum finding your teenage diary. Facebook certainly thinks so; it’s seen as a violation of privacy for your relatives to gain access to your account after you die.
What security risks does your online self face after you die?
While there’s value for your family in what you’ve created online throughout your life, your identity is also valuable to those looking for a spot of criminal cyber-activity.
It can take up to 6 months for banks and credit providers to process the death of a customer, and the social media platforms you have accounts with may never be notified. Dead people can’t monitor their credit or what they look like if their name is typed into Google search.