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"Julie Myhre is the editor of\u00A0NextAdvisor.com.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAs of May 2013, 72 percent of online adults use social networking sites, according to\u00A0Pew Internet and American Life Project. The unfortunate aspect of so many people using social media is that when one of our friends or family members dies, we are forced to not only deal with their identity \u2014 in terms of their personal information \u2014 but also with their digital identity.\r\n\r\nFamily members and friends question if they should take down the loved one\u2019s social media or leave it as a memorial for people to leave comments and reflect. Technically, there is no right decision to make in this difficult situation. However, family members and friends need to consider that if they leave the profile online, then they might be putting their loved one\u2019s\u00A0identity at risk. This is mostly because of constantly changing privacy rules for all of the major social media websites.\r\n\r\nIf the family members or friends do decide to delete the digital identity of their loved one, then here are some tips on how to request the removal of the deceased\u2019s account.\r\nFacebook\r\n\r\n\r\nThis social network\u2019s policy is to memorialize the account of a deceased person, however it understands that some people want to delete the deceased person\u2019s account.\r\n\r\nTo memorialize an account, you must contact Facebook, provide proof of death and request for the account to be memorialized. To delete an account on Facebook, you\u2019ll need to fill out this\u00A0online form\u00A0as well as provide proof that you\u2019re related to the deceased. Facebook considers appropriate proof to be a death certificate, the deceased person's birth certificate or proof of authority.\r\nTwitter\r\n\r\n\r\nUnlike Facebook, Twitter\u2019s policy is to deactivate the account of the deceased. In order to complete this you\u2019ll need to mail Twitter a packet of information, including the username of the deceased user's Twitter account, a copy of the deceased user\u2019s death certificate and a copy of your government-issued ID.\r\n\r\nOn top of the copies of the official documents, Twitter also requires you to mail or fax the company a signed statement that includes your first and last name, your email address, your contact information, your relationship to the deceased person, written request to deactivate the account and a description of the details that show the account belongs to the deceased \u2014 if the account has a different name than the death certificate.\r\n\r\nYou can also include a link to the online obituary, however adding this is not required. Once you\u2019ve collected all of the information, mail or fax it to:\r\n\r\nTwitter, Inc.\r\nc/o: Trust &amp;amp;amp; Safety\r\n1355 Market St., Suite 900\r\nSan Francisco, CA 94103\r\nFax : 1-415-865-5405\r\n\r\nAfter you've mailed or faxed all of the required documentation, a representative of Twitter will contact you to complete the deactivation process.\r\nInstagram\r\n\r\n\r\nThis social networking website requires you to send an email to support@instagram.com with the details of the person\u2019s account. A representative from the company will then email you back and include the steps and documentation that you need to remove the account.\r\nLinkedIn\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilar to Facebook, LinkedIn prefers to have you fill out an\u00A0online form, which asks for information such as the deceased member\u2019s name, deceased member\u2019s email address, the name of the company they recently worked for, your relationship to the deceased person and a link to the deceased person\u2019s email address.\r\n\r\nOnce you complete the form, a LinkedIn representative should contact you.\r\nPinterest\r\n\r\n\r\nThis site requires you to fill out an\u00A0online contact form\u00A0and explain that you\u2019d like to deactivate the page of a deceased person. In the \u201Cbody\u201D of the contact form, you should include a link to the deceased person\u2019s Pinterest page or their Pinterest username.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s also important to note that once you\u2019re contacted by a Pinterest representative, you\u2019ll need to provide some sort of supporting documentation, such as an obituary or copy of the death certificate.\r\nTumblr\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilar to Instagram, Tumblr requires you to send an email to support@tumblr.com requesting to remove the account of the deceased person. Be sure to include a link to the deceased person\u2019s Tumblr or their Tumblr username. You\u2019ll then work with a Tumblr representative to prove the person is deceased \u2014 with appropriate documentation \u2014 and complete the process of removing the account.\r\n\r\nSince all of these companies have\u00A0privacy policies\u00A0that forbid them from giving out the account information \u2014 such as username and password \u2014 it\u2019s best if you, as a living person, write down the usernames and passwords for your social media accounts and keep them in a safe place. This way, your family and friends won\u2019t have to go through the stress of contacting each of the social networking websites to have your account removed because they\u2019ll instead be able to go into the account and deactivate or remove it themselves.\r\n\r\nImage credit:\u00A0Orhan Cam/Shutterstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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