Virtual Assets After Death
I had an interesting interview with Marissa Mitchell with ABC 33-40 this morning. She is doing a report for Focus@4 about what happens to FaceBook and other virtual and digital assets after you pass away. So how does this impact the employment world? Everything a business does on line, and even off line with laptops/desktops, needs to be accessible if the person controlling the virtual or digital asset passes away or becomes incapacitated. On-line banking accounts. Investment accounts. Email accounts. Contact lists. LinkedIn accounts. Twitter accounts. EBay accounts. Photo storage accounts. Who owns them? Who has access to them? How do the terms of use control access? For example, FaceBook allows an account to be placed in a "Memorial State" upon death. Certain portions of the profile section remain hidden, you cannot log onto the account, confirmed friends may leave a message, and a family or friend with administrative rights can manage the tributes. Twitter provides for permanent backup or complete account deletion. LinkedIn allows the account to be closed upon notification of death and verification of death. Blogs and Websites may have copyright protection. The value of a blog, twitter account or domain name may have significant value: my blog is not worth much, but what about a blog written by Neil Zuckerburg or Lady GaGa? A music library may be worth a significant amount of money if there are thousands of songs on it. Are the company tax returns kept on a laptop/desktop? If so who as access to them should the owner pass away or become incapacitated?
Email accounts are also controlled by the Terms of Use. For example, Yahoo considers the account to be private property, and will not provide access without a court order. In 2005, the father of a US Marine killed in Afghanistan wanted access to his son's e-mails: Yahoo said no. After a court battle, the judge ordered Yahoo to provide the information to the father. Yahoo did so, but maintained that it did so only because of the court order, and it would not voluntarily do so in the future. GMail automatically deletes after 9 months. They will provide, with appropriate proof, a CD with complete contents, including contacts and emails. Hotmail has the same policy.
Practice Pointer. Having a Virtual Asset Instruction Letter (VAIL) can help control what happens to virtual or digital assets should the owner pass away or become incapacitated. Account names and numbers, passwords, answers to security questions and user names are all needed to gain access. A power of attorney for those incapacitated, or a will for those who pass away, can address these issues. This is an important component for the continuity of any business should the worst happen.
Make sure you’ve read our disclaimer prior to commenting.