Parents try to force Facebook to yield up son's digital
estate
07 June 2012
A Wisconsin couple have obtained a court order
requiring Facebook to give them access to the accounts and online
assets of their late son. But the social-media company has so
far refused to comply.
Benjamin Stassen committed suicide in late
2010 without leaving a note. As with most young people, most of his
personal communications had been done through the internet, so his
parents, Jay and Helen, tried to search his accounts for an
explanation of his suicide.
However, Facebook and Google, which held most
of Benjamin's records, refused to reveal them, citing client
confidentiality, even though the Stassens are clearly the heirs to
their son's estate.
Eventually the Stassens (one of whom is a
lawyer) resorted to legal action. They obtained a court order
ordering Google to hand over all of Benjamin's email records, and
Google complied. They also now have an order from a local court
directing Facebook to give them access to their son’s account,
along with any digital assets or records, but at the time of
writing, Facebook was still considering how to react. Its policy is
not to allow survivors access to a deceased person's account. A
court order releases the company from its client confidentiality
obligations, but it could still appeal to a higher state court or
even a federal court.
Privacy law in the US is a confusing patchwork
of different statutes. Because of this, internet social media
companies are usually cautious about granting access to a deceased
user's account, says law professor Peter Swire. There have
apparently been cases where an evil-doer falsely claimed that a
living individual had died, so as to take control of their
accounts.
Moreover, there can be legitimate disagreement
about whether a (genuinely) deceased person really wanted their
family to be able to read their private emails or other records.
There are, according to law professor Naomi Cahn, almost no binding
legal precedents on the matter as yet. Some states (Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Indiana and Idaho) have incorporated
digital assets into their estate laws, but they do not agree with
one another, some referring only to email while others also deal
with social networking and blogging.
Commercial solutions to the problem appear to
be more advanced than legislative ones. Several companies have
emerged, including Entrustet and Legacy Locker, that will wind up
or manage a client's accounts after their death and according to
their instructions.
Sources
Digital Executor
NBC Rock Center