Now possible: determine heirs for Facebook account

2015

Users in the US can already designate their legacy person on Facebook, ie a person of trust for the administration of the account after their own death.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook allows account management after death

Soon we will be able to select an heir on Facebook to manage our account after our death.

What happens to my Facebook account when someday I will not be there anymore? This is a question millions of people in the world ask themselves. Now Facebook gives a good answer. From now on we can appoint an heir during his lifetime, who will be allowed to manage our account after our death .

Little catch: Currently, only users in the US can select their " Legacy Contact ", but it is likely that Facebook will offer this change in the foreseeable future for Europe. The confidant can then be specified in the security settings.

What can our heritage do with our account?

Many will now worry that the confidant can read all our personal messages after we die. But that should not be so. Our heir can neither read our messages nor post them unreservedly on our behalf.

But what he can do: he can install a top post on the page where he publishes an obituary, for example. He can also change our profile picture, cover picture, and respond to new friend requests.

Optionally we can give the heir the possibility to download an archive of our Facebook data including all posts, videos and images we have ever posted there.

So far, it was the case that after the death of a human whose account was only viewed - but could not be subsequently managed by anyone.

When we select an heir, the person is informed about this in a polite message. It says something like, "Dear xxxx, Facebook now lets its users choose people who can manage their account if they happen to them, since you know me well and I trust you, I'll choose you for this task If you want to talk about it with me, please let me know. "