What happens to your accounts when you are dead?

Who cares? Well, I did. I made a quick research after I thought what is going to happen to my accounts when I’m dead.

 I chose Google's and Facebook's policies for my research, as they would probably cover most of the internet users in the world. They have different treatments. 

In short, Google states it may pass the account details to authorised people after long and careful assessments. Facebook, on the other hand, states that no account passing is possible but as soon as they are notified that the account owner passed away, they turn the account to a memorialised account where only friends can see and search the account and can leave posts for remembrance but the account is not accessible.

I think Google is not doing right by passing the account information. Either you are the legal inheritor of that person or not, I don’t think previous emails of years can be passed to other individuals. At least, there should be an option for users to choose if they want their accounts to be passed to someone else or just to be terminated.

For more information about these policies, you can check these links out;

Google deceased person account policy

Facebook deceased person account policy