The Facebook pages of those who have passed away often become memorials of sorts, offering a place for friends and family to leave remembrances and to act as an archive to honor the person’s life, relationships and experiences. Now, the social network has implemented the ability to designate a digital heir.
“We’re introducing a new feature that lets people choose a legacy contact—a family member or friend who can manage their account when they pass away,” the company explained. “Once someone lets us know that a person has passed away, we will memorialize the account.”
The redesigned memorialized profiles pay tribute to the deceased by adding “Remembering” above their names. The legacy contact can also write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message); respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook; and update the profile picture and cover photo.
If someone chooses, they may give their legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information they shared on Facebook. Other settings will remain the same as before the account was memorialized. The legacy contact will not be able to log in as the person who passed away or see that person’s private messages.
People can also choose to have their loved ones’ Facebook accounts permanently deleted after death.
“Until now, when someone passed away, we offered a basic memorialized account which was viewable, but could not be managed by anyone,” Facebook said. “By talking to people who have experienced loss, we realized there is more we can do to support those who are grieving and those who want a say in what happens to their account after death.”
While the improvements are a positive, some note that it doesn’t go far enough. “The appointment of a ‘digital power of attorney’ demonstrates the focus people place on their digital afterlife,” said Richard Law, CEO at identity management company GBGroup, via email. “However, the ‘one size fits all’ manner of Facebook’s solution severely diminishes the control given to the user, and those appointed to preserve their memory. Users should be able to stipulate the amount of control, access and visibility they give to their digital heir.”
He added, “There are obvious data privacy issues that Facebook must be sensitive of, but this highlights a clear disparity between the level of trust bestowed to heirs in our online and offline lives. Ultimately it’s for you and not Facebook to determine how much trust you have in your heir.”
Legacy contacts are being introduced first in the US.