Who owns your e-mail after you die? 13

Granny, Glad to see we finally agree on something

Thanks for stopping by again, I’m still in the process of moving all my postings from my old site, but after that is done, I’d like to read through your blog too.

Cheers

Would be like having someone read my diary or raid my undie drawer. Way too personal for me.

Made me think about another side of the coin.
I have often thought of creating a list, that in the event of my death..please inform via e-mail…sorta thing. I have had many friends over my years on the internet just disappear without a trace. Would be nice to know it wasn’t from a freak bus accident hehe

Reply to Chellie:

I totally agree on the list. I often wondered what would happen if I died suddenly, whether somebody would go through my MSN list and tell everyone on my list, or whether I would just disappear to them without a trace.

Reply to Jim:
I (barry/annonymous)was possibly referring to someone finding this website on my list.Oh how embarrassing!Agree?

Hope you have better luck than I did, Jim. I kept getting a rectangle that took up half my blog.

Excellent question, Jim.

I thought about it for 1/2 hour, read all the comments, and I’m still not certain.

For instance, your point about password sounds quite logical, i.e. if you left your password in your will, then you clearly indicate you are willing to leave access to your email. But there are still 2 hicks with this:

1. Is there one person in a million who does? (I mean of those who would want to). Ok, you might rigtly say “yeah but it’s their problem if they don’t think of it”. True, but this bring the second point:

2. You point out that physical journals automatically get passed on. No need for a password. So, is it fair to expect a password for access to the equivalent electronic journal?

(I’m trying to reason purely on the assumption that we all think it just and fair next of kins have access to your hard copy journal, and therefore that we are trying to find which way would implement the equivalent in regard to electronic mail).

I’m trying to slip back in the hard copy journal mode. I suppose the way out to prevent your private stuff being automatically given away to your kins, would be to insert a clause in your will, such as “all documents in drawer A should be given to my kids, all those in drawer B should be destroyed without being read”. In other words, there is no password to access the lot, but you can kind of *password* to DENY access to part or all of it.

So perhaps a system by which the default would be access to all your email, except for those in folders specified in you will (if any)? That would make it closer to the equivalent hard copy situation. In practice, it would mean some independant person + witness, upon reading your will, gaining access to your email, and deleting all folders you specified in your will.

After all, if you think of it: why do we need passwords? The comparison with hard copy journals hardly stands: you don’t need passwords for them because nobody can see them. Only if your apartment is broken into, and even then your average robber has better things to steal than your journal. In other words, you don’t need a *password* because you are already safe.

On the other hand electronic email is very different. Quite clearly if your email client wasn’t password protected, you’d be hacked into by 5000 ppl every day and you wouldn’t even know it.

What I’m trying to get at (yeah I know, I tend to waffle on) is: I don’t think we can equate the non-divulgion of a password with the intent NOT to leave access to your kins. A password is an absolute necessity just to be able to use your electronic mail, it shouldn’t be regarded as a willful intention of blocking access to your kins after your death.

In conclusion (yes, I can hear the big sigh all the way from here ), I’d say:

Access by your kins to your electronic diary should be automatic, just like any of your material possessions – which include your hard copy diary. Except for what is specified in your will as NOT to be passed on, but destroyed.

Howzat for an argumentative bastard, eh?
PS: I still haven’t written one will in my life. But regarding my mail, it’s ok if I get run over by a bus tomorrow cuz she knows my password anyway, LOL. And if I should die before her, I’d rather her have all of it, warts and all, for I think she would forgive me for the bits she might not like, and the overal thing would be a great support in her coping with my absence.