Eventually, we will all die, leaving our various online accounts active. However, whenever we meet our end in this life, should our loved ones have the ability to gain access to our Facebook or Twitter accounts? A group of lawyers have said yes to this, but only if the deceased says yes in a will.
The Uniform Law Commission members appointed by state governments to help regulate state laws, was expected to endorse a plan on Wednesday that would give relatives the ability to gain access to deceased loved ones' digital accounts. While they would have the ability to control the accounts, it would not be given unless stated otherwise in a will by the deceased.
Before this legislation can become law, it must first be adopted by the state's legislature. If it does become law, it will become a very important tool in estate planning, giving people the power to decide which account dies or lives on after their death.
Apparently, if the legislation is passed into law, it could rattle the feathers of privacy advocates who claim that a person shouldn't have to write into will to keep his or her mother from gaining access to emails and other digital accounts after death.
"Our email accounts are our filing cabinets these days," said Suzanne Brown Walsh, a Cummings & Lockwood attorney who chaired the drafting committee on the bill. "[I]f you need access to an email account, in most states you wouldn't get it."
In this ever increasing digital world, it is pretty difficult to determine what should be done with a person's online account after death due to several variables. For example, a person could be the owner of a popular website, the money that website makes could do well for the family. Should they have the ability to gain access to the account, or should the law side with the deceased person if they wrote in their will to never allow this.
The whole thing is tricky, and could take a long time before becoming law. Chances are; we are bound to see a lot of court appearances over the deceased digital accounts.
