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ARTICLE · 08 MAY 2019

Your Digital Legacy: New Problems For The Facebook Generation

Withers LLP
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Facebook announced in April that it is using artificial intelligence to try and prevent notifications being sent to a deceased person's friends and family; an unfortunate automated function

United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Jo Sanders
Jo Sanders
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Facebook announced in April that it is using artificial intelligence to try and prevent notifications being sent to a deceased person's friends and family; an unfortunate automated function that has caused much shock and distress.

The social media site allows users (over the age of 18) to either have their account deleted on their death, or to appoint a legacy contact who can manage a memorialised account on behalf of the deceased. This presupposes a number of steps, including that users have made use of those functions and that the deceased has arranged for someone to notify social media accounts of the death. If no digital legacy planning has taken place, then the potential for dispute between family members or others as to who should have the right to control private information residing on the servers of a social media company becomes obvious.

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