Death and Berevement

Someone I'm linked to of Facebook raised an issue earlier as a joke - 
but actually, I think it has a serious side: if I die, will Facebook 
close my account?

No, they won't - but /someone/ probably should. If I shuffled off this 
mortal coil tomorrow, the potential task for my wife or children would 
be tracking down a bunch of accounts and passwords that all needed 
updating with the news that I was no longer a burden to society. I 
wonder if there's a 'cancel all the accounts of person X' use case here?

The problem would be malicious usage, so it would probably have to be 
something like making an online will: "I hereby give permission that, in 
the event of my death, person Y has the authority, using Z credentials, 
to cancel all my online accounts unless I log into /any/of them in the 
following 3 months" or something.

What I can't work out is whether this is something that might be part of 
a future standardisation track - or simply a commercial opportunity for 
someone. In which case, why the heck am I sending this to a public list? 
  ;-)

Phil.

-- 

Phil Archer
http://philarcher.org/

i-sieve technologies                   |      W3C Mobile Web Initiative
Sentiment Analysis Beyond Impressions  |      www.w3.org/Mobile

Received on Sunday, 26 July 2009 19:40:46 UTC