Slashdot Mirror


Facebook Adds Legacy Contact Feature In Case You Die Before It Does

alphadogg writes "Facebook has added an option for users to delegate management of their account for when they die. The idea is to avoid awkward lingering Facebook pages after a person passes on, perhaps featuring images or posts that someone would rather not be remembered by....This isn't the first time Facebook has put thought into what happens to users' accounts when the users die. A year ago the social network outlined a more flexible approach to memorializing accounts. Now memorialized accounts will have the word "Remembering" hovering above a person's name.

13 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Let me guess.... by chrism238 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ....the Legacy Contact has to be an existing Facebook user? How much inbreeding can the human race withstand?

  2. Incorruptable by retech · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be better if the data slowly corrupted over a year eventually ending in a bunch of gibberish text and glitched photos...

    Thinking about it, I guess that means it would just make it indistinguishable from most other accounts.

    1. Re:Incorruptable by TheLink · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or have a "deadman switch" trigger a script to update it with preset/random stuff, or have some prankster update it for you: http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...

      e.g. Justin Morg: Oops... Looks like I'm dead. Damn... :(
      Tuesday at 10:00pm

      Justin Morg likes 10 ways to tell that you are really dead
      Tuesday at 10:02pm

      Justin Morg: Anyone have a res handy? Urgent!
                              Justin Morg needs a resurrection! Give him one and you'll get HadesVille points!
      Tuesday at 10:13pm via HadesVille

      Justin Morg: Where's the restore from quick-save option when you really really need it. Sigh...
      Tuesday at 10:17pm

      Justin Morg: On the bright side, I guess I don't have to show up for work tomorrow :) @Boss.
      Tuesday at 10:20pm

      Justin Morg: Hmm, wonder what time the funeral will be tomorrow. I'd hate to be late ;). Haha I kill me sometimes (but not this time, it was Professor Plum with the candlestick!).
      Tuesday at 10:32pm

      Justin Morg: I guess I'll call it a night, no point doing the graveyard shift, don't want to be like a zombie tomorrow...
      Tuesday at 10:50pm

      Justin Morg: Good morning! I'm up! OK not so good and not so up. Oh well. At least the mortician made me smile, put stitches in my side too.
      Wednesday at 7:30am

      Justin Morg likes What's worse than waking up early in the morning? Not waking up at all!
      Wednesday at 7:32am

      Justin Morg: I guess I'll skip breakfast, no stomach for it today... But I'd die for a cup of coffee :p.
      Wednesday at 7:35am

      Justin Morg: Wow, people are actually coming to my funeral!
      Wednesday at 8:43am

      Justin Morg likes a minute of silence
      Wednesday at 9:01am

      Justin Morg: Aww don't cry... OK so I'll really be forever in your debt, but hey I did say the payback's gonna be "out of this world" right? XD
      Wednesday at 9:05am

      Justin Morg likes The Sweet By and By
      Wednesday at 9:10am

      Justin Morg: @MaryNotMarried now's the time to ask that pesky aunt "When's your turn" just like she does to you at weddings... Haha!
      Wednesday at 9:13am

      Justin Morg likes short sermons and even shorter skirts
      Wednesday at 9:20am

      Justin Morg: ok Human Torch time!
      Wednesday at 9:30am

      Justin Morg: getting kinda warm in here... I hate stupid ties and suits.
      Wednesday at 9:35am

      Justin Morg: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSMOKIN'!
      Wednesday at 9:37am

      Justin Morg: Flame on!
      Wednesday at 9:40am

      Justin Morg: The ultimate fat burning program... Watch the pounds melt away. And never come back- 100% guaranteed!
      Wednesday at 9:45am

      Justin Morg: ok I guess I can fit in that sexy "size nothing" urn now... Check out my new curves... Hey guys, I'm coming out of the closet! Just kidding! Don't look like you've just seen a ghost.
      Wednesday at 9:55am

      Justin Morg: It is very dark. I wonder if grues eat ashes.
      Wednesday at 10:00am

      --
  3. the problem here is ... by swell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How do you monetize the page of a dead person?

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  4. Re:Is there an option by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To simply delegate removal by someone upon death?

    Leave instructions and your password with your attorney? Or set of attorneys in disparate jurisdictions using Shamir's Secret Sharing, if you're totally paranoid?

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  5. Wipe the slate by petes_PoV · · Score: 2
    Why not extend this so that after a period of inactivity (say: a year) the account is automatically wiped - leaving no trace of the user.

    That would also allow individuals who wish to start over (say: when they grow up a little) to do so by simply starting a new account and leaving the old one to die off.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  6. Re:Absolutely pointless by codeButcher · · Score: 2

    There is no rule that a Facebook page must be owned by a living person. Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg disagrees, because you can't data mine or sell ads to a dead person.

    Yeah, but the advertisers don't know that you are dead. Do you think the line for screwing over should be drawn between those that pay and those that don't?

    --
    Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
  7. Right to be forgotten? by codeButcher · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now memorialized accounts will have the word "Remembering" hovering above a person's name.

    What about my (presumed) right to be forgotten?

    --
    Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
    1. Re:Right to be forgotten? by X0563511 · · Score: 2

      Then check the box requesting your account to be deleted when you die.

      Your data (supposedly) goes zap when facebook is notified you're a stiff.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  8. That awkward feeling... by Katatsumuri · · Score: 2

    ...when your social network starts to feel like a cemetery.

  9. Re:How come there is no 'Remembering' thingy hover by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Because we'd prefer to forget.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Hopefully by AVryhof · · Score: 2

    I'm hoping Facebook will be defunct by the time I kick.

  11. Facebook Sensitivity...eh. by LaurenCates · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I hear that Facebook has a sensitivity team that responded to that guy who wrote a blog post when the "Year In Review" displayed a lot of pictures of his daughter that died from cancer during the year. (Apparently, Facebook was terribly insensitive in doing that or something...*)

    So, it's not terribly surprising that Facebook would address something like this. Especially since the internet hasn't really had the chance to process what it means to have so much digital information on someone online yet. For instance: I received a friend suggestion on Facebook for someone who died last year. We weren't close, but I was sad she passed.

    What does that mean if you don't have someone assigned as a legacy, then? Can you report the page as someone who's passed? Do you need to provide proof? What if that system gets abused and locks up people's pages because trolls think it's funny that you have to prove you're still alive in order to access your page?

    *No, I'm not mocking the guy for having lost his daughter; guaranteed someone will interpret this statement that way. I personally think it's weird that said blog post became a "thing" on the internet as someone with a downgraded version of the same situation (put our dog to sleep in December; her pics came up a lot in my YIR...which, I know is hardly the same as losing a child to cancer, but if I were to scale it down, I wouldn't have called Facebook "vaguely insensitive" for that. Still miss my dog, though), as if somehow Facebook has the AI to discern exactly enough context from posts to make a perfect and not emotionally damaging YIR for everyone.

    --
    Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.