Dead Men Floating through Internet

Introduction

Why are "we" conceived of as "on the Internet" through only one service of this kind? People are represented in society through everything we do, everyone we've known, everywhere we've left our influences, our language, our teaching, our human love. When we die, some of those representations change, some do not. Some fade away, some last forever. Why is it necessary or desirable to say that "on the Internet," it's somehow different. Bits on storage devices, like photos in albums, both change and stay the same because the people who put them there, or are depicted there, are dead. So what?

But if this is a problem, it can't be much of a problem, can it? The executor, or other legal representative of the deceased, can do with whatever the deceased has stored in publicly-accessible locations whatever the deceased's wishes are. Parties who can help to facilitate that effort will do so, because, if the representatives need them to, the courts will give the same legal powers to them that the deceased had.

Can family members completely maintain all pages, comments and relevant information of a deceased person?

People differ in the extent to which they want to have others act for them after they are dead. When these matters are important to people, they will do what they need to secure that their agents have the necessary instructions and powers. Where the whole matter is of no concern to the decedent, why should we care more than she or he did?

Can we control all pages, comments and relevant information of ourselves in advance of death?

In "the cloud," users of services that store and provide data have these problems at all times. Hence the interest in providing individual users ways to deploy personal servers. You might try to imagine not some immense legal structure designed to manage all these risks in a global economy where the decedent in Australia might use a cloud storage service in Sweden, but rather a small technical solution, involving storing our data in our own houses.

Conclusion

---++ Introduction

As we learned during classes, our posts, comments, photos, etc. on Internet (especially SNS such as Facebook, Twitter and blog) can be intentionally gathered by someone and will form our personal information. By exposing some information on Internet, we can be identified, even if each post, comment or friendship seems to be insufficient for identifying person. Therefore, it is very important for us to control disclosure of personal information through SNS. In my opinion, when a person can control his/her information at its own will, such “control” means both (i) non-disclosure of certain information and (ii) deleting previously-disclosed information as needed. Then, what if a person suddenly lost ability to control his/her information? Particularly, what will be happen on SNS pages after a member of the SNS passed away? His/her Facebook pages, tags, blog pages, posts, comments would continue exposing to public (or friends), without any updates and deletion. The situation would be worse if he/she had not set screening rule – his/her SNS pages might float through internet for years (until the SNS suspends its services) accompanying bunch of inappropriate comments including advertisements and abuses. Would family members be able to do anything effective after a person’s death? Or could we prepare by ourselves in advance to avoid unintentional floating through Internet after death?

---++ Can family members completely maintain all pages, comments and relevant information of a deceased person?

There are some possible ways for family members of a deceased person to maintain his/her pages, comments and relevant information. If a SNS company has terms of use that allows family members to log in or remove the deceased member’s account after verification, family members can maintain the deceased person’s account. By way of examples, Facebook is accepting requests from verified immediate family members to remove a deceased person’s account from Facebook site. In addition, in Japan, some famous people’s blogs have been maintained and updated by their families or relevant even after their death so that their fans can visit the page. (It is said such maintenance is not based on company’s terms but just a kind of special treatment.) However, there are several concerns here. In my opinion, family members cannot completely maintain all accounts and information of a deceased person. First, generally speaking, most of family members do not have a complete list of deceased person’s SNS accounts. In such cases, perhaps it is almost impossible for family members to grasp all relevant accounts, all comments, and all posts of the deceased person. Second, the policy with respect to removal, closure and maintenance of deceased member’s account seems to vary among SNS companies. Family members can remove, close or maintain several accounts in accordance with the terms of use of Internet companies, which allow family members to do so after verification if necessary; however, as for other accounts that do not have such terms, family members can’t do anything. Third, family member’s actions might not accord with the deceased person’s intention or preference. For instance, in Facebook, the account of a deceased person can be “memorialized.” When a Facebook member passes away, after necessary procedure, his/her timeline will continue existing as a virtual memorial place. This system would provide a good place for people who miss the deceased person but none of them would know whether the member wished such continuous exposure to public after death.

---++ Can we control all pages, comments and relevant information of ourselves in advance of death?

We may try to set a timer which automatically works after passing away and which controls our own information; we may also record accounts information and passwords in one place so that we secure our accounts to be properly updated, closed, deleted or maintained after death. There are several services that help us to control our information in advance, such as Legacy Locker and Life Ensured. In Japan, as far as I know, there are service companies that (i) update the member’s blog or (ii) send out an email to people designated by the member, if the member did not timely respond to some status confirmation emails sent by the service company. By this service, we can prepare a farewell message to others in advance. However, I think there are some concerns here as well. First, we can’t 100% assure that our accounts info and passwords will be kept in secret forever until our death. Letting others know all of my accounts and passwords means, potentially and reluctantly help someone to do a data mining. For example, when I have revealed all of my accounts and passwords to such service entity, and if such information was somehow leaked to a third party, such party can completely impersonate me, at least in the realm of Internet. It would mean a collapse of my identity. Second, even if such information has not been leaked yet, there is no guarantee that these companies continue to exist until we die. Company might quickly make a decision to end their business and delete all secured information. I think we should not rely on these companies’ eternality. Third, even if these companies continue existing and securing our information until our death, it is still unsure whether all accounts are updated, closed, deleted or maintained properly in line with deceased person’s previous intention. We do not have any established systems to ask for governmental power implementing such intention.

---++ Conclusion

As stated, while there is not a perfect and definite way to completely control information on Internet, I believe that we could use combination of several possible ways for a better control. At the same time, I strongly hope that Internet companies have discussion and set a voluntary guideline regarding this matter.

-- YukoKawai - 04 Mar 2013

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