What happens to your emails when you die?

[napi21]

According to articles in Forbes and Foreign Policy magazine, estate planners are advising their clients to include emails and online passwords in their wills. Without these provisions, online service providers will not grant family or friends access to digital property, some of which could be valuable.

The Foreign Policy article states that, more and more, these cases are landing in court:


In 2005, a Michigan judge ordered Yahoo! to release the emails of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq to his family after they filed suit. Chris Sprigman, a University of Virginia law professor, says that's just the beginning. "There will be a flood of these cases cropping up," he says.

These cases can be sticky because unlike traditional assets, digital property does not have laws to point to, only agreements.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/#47279

Interesting. I sure never thought about it!

[oldtimecanuk]

1. LOL.... uhhhhhhh Who really gives......

A fuk..... Sorry, but that really did catch me unawares.... When we have passed over, (personally, I really don't give a rats ass who has to deal with either my old emails or anything else as far as that is concerned) That may seem like a selfish response.... but (hey, no but to it, it is selfish... I don't give a rats ass) Period...

ww

[napi21]

On email, you're right, I don't care either. But Ihave bill pay and

all but ONE bill I get is sent to me via email. Access to the bank accounts, and damn near everything else I do is done online. My husband hates computers, has never sent an email, and the only thing he ever doesislook at the occasional picture someone sends me, or check the weekly flyer for one of his favorite stores if it isn't included in the Sunday paper.

I really wouldn't want to put him in the spot of being financially crippled if I croaked suddenly!

The problem I have is, even if I explainedwhere to find all the passwords, he wouldn't know how to find the damn sites because he just doesn't want to bother with PC's at all!

[silverojo]

5. I faced that problem when my aunt had a stroke

She paid all her bills online, and they came due while she was in the hospital. By the time she'd recovered enough to tell me what the passwords were, they were all overdue. That, and the fact she could no longer work anymore, destroyed her credit.

The answer is, if there's anything valuable that your family needs to know, share your passwords with them. If it's just crap that won't matter to anyone else--like my e-mails, LOL--then the account will be closed after a certain amount of inactivity, anyway.

By the way, you ARE wise enough to be using only web-based e-mail, aren't you? If not, you might as well attach a sign to your computer: "Infect me!" :rofl:

[Journeyman]

4. I'm going to go out on a limb here and surmise you have. . .

neither property nor intellectual interests you wish to pass on to others, or a wife and children, and so have no need for a will. I have them all, and wish to simplify my friends' and family's lives as much as possible, ease them through the transition when I die, so making such arrangements is part of what I will consider the last kind act of love I'll grant those I care about. So that's who would really "give a fuck," someone who cares about those whose lives they touch.

[Radio_Lady]

12. Speaking for myself only, we have wills with codicils, which regularly get

looked at and updated.

However, that still doesn't guarantee that your heirs will be able to thread themselves through your personal computer to any degree.

We use web mail and assume that if you turn off service, the mailbox(es) and messages in them are deleted, somehow.

However, this interesting tidbit reared its ugly head last week.

Do you know that Google keeps a list of ANY AND ALL PLACES YOU SEARCHED FOR ON THEIR SYSTEM? They said the service has been doing that since "when the company was working out of the two owners' garages". They don't propose anything, but you just have to know this fascinating fact.

Come to think of it, what ever happened to www.altavista.com which used to be the search engine run by Digital Equipment in Maynard, Massachusetts? I had some VERY interesting searches going on that sucker... a long time ago.

[az chela]

2. I'm taking my emails with me

[cynatnite]

3. I can understand family wanting the emails of their loved one...

But what if it's porn or something like that? Would they want to know that?

[Catherine Vincent]

6. Then don't leave the password to your porn sites.

:)

[cynatnite]

8. I'll remember that...

:rofl:

[WillyT]

7. They Go To Atari Heaven ???

:shrug:

[NanceGreggs]

9. After I'm gone ...

... please forward all emails to [e-mail].

Wouldn't it be funny if, when I passed to the other side, I found out that all of that spam-mail from people in (put name of foreign country here) legitimately could have made me a fortune, if only I'd let them use my banking information to transfer their dead father's billions into my account?

Go figure!

EDITED TO ADD: Just sent an email to [e-mail] - got a 'failure notice' message back -- apparently, I must be STILL ALIVE!!! (Will check again in the a.m., just to be sure ...)

[Radio_Lady]

11. Yes, Nance, there is a Nigerian lottery, but you missed out on that payoff!

Seriously, my email contains NOTHING that couldn't be read or just erased with the following DOS command:

C:\format c: (or something like that)

You should see all the passwords my husband has for our financial, travel, and tax accounts.
He has them all on the four sides of an ancient manila file, and they're written in pencil, so he can change them.

I know women are supposed to be interested in all that stuff, but I'm just not. If he goes first, I'm in a bale of trouble. The people at the bank told me they will explain computer banking to me, but what else will come up?

I also won't know how to set up the God-damned outdoor sprinkler system, the cable TV box, and most of the other technology around here. He's so far advanced from me that I HAVE RECENTLY BEGUN TO PRAY THAT I GO FIRST.

He can always learn to do dishes, laundry, and low-level cooking, right? As far as sex goes, he's on his own.
I've already told him that the day I croak, he will still have household stuff like doing the dishes, making the beds, etc. before the cremation even begins.

Oh, well. I'll think about all of that tomorrow.

[Raine]

10. I don't want anyone reading my emails

after I'm gone. I want them to just disappear into cyber-space, they are personal and not for anyone else's eyes.