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What happens to your online accounts after you die?

Did you know that Hotmail lets relatives order a CD of all the messages in a deceased user's account if they provide a death certificate and proof of power of attorney?

Gmail requires the same paperwork plus a copy of an e-mail the deceased sent to the petitioner.

Facebook will follow a family's wishes to take down a deceased user's profile or keep it in a "memorial state," which removes features like status updates and lets only confirmed friends view the profile and post comments on it.

Photo-storage site Flickr will keep an account up and mostly open to the public, but if a user had marked any photos as private, the site won't let family or friends into the account to access them.

How do you feel about having your accounts viewed by others?

I'd probably flip in my grave multiple times

I don't think so-maybe that's why I don't have Facebook to begin with..................

Kindle;1239933 wrote:

How do you feel about having your accounts viewed by others?


It's just the same as anything else in your estate, such as letters. If you don't want people to read them, make legal provision.

I have 18 separate accounts that require passwords to access. Investment, banking, accounting, email, legal, credit card, cable tv, medical, utilities, taxes. I have arranged for my heirs to have access to these accounts upon my death to better facilitate the distribution of my estate.