A growing number of Internet users continue to join Facebook, the popular social networking site, to share their lives and interests with friends.
However, very few may have tried to figure out what happens to all the online accounts and social profiles of a deceased loved one on Facebook.
[quote font=”georgia” font_size=”22″ font_style=”italic” align=”left” arrow=”yes”]Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away. Memorializing an account also helps keep it secure by preventing anyone from logging into it.[/quote]Families need to give attention to common situation as this as a lot of major social media services now have policies for those that need to take care of a deceased user’s account, when they have departed to the hereafter.
If a deceased user kept their Facebook login and password credentials completely private, then getting into any of their online accounts to obtain information or delete the account can be a tricky process for family members.
When ignored, these online accounts, particularly the user’s social media profiles, tend to remain active online well after the user’s death.
Today, we shall take a brief look at how you can gain control of a deceased loved one’s Facebook account or have it shut down completely.
On Facebook, there are two standard options when dealing with a deceased user’s account, plus a new legacy contact option that was recently introduced.
The first option you have is to turn the user’s account into a memorial page. Facebook basically leaves the user profile as it is, but prevents the memorialized page from being referenced on Facebook as an active user.
Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away. Memorializing an account also helps keep it secure by preventing anyone from logging into it.
If Facebook is made aware that a person has passed away, it is its policy to memorialize the account. Facebook will also take extra measures to secure the account in order to protect the privacy of the deceased user.
Memorialized accounts have the following key features:
- The word Remembering will be shown next to the person’s name on his profile.
- Depending on the privacy settings of the account, friends can share memories on the memorialized Timeline.
- Content the person shared (ex: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible to the audience it was shared with.
- Memorialized profiles don’t appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders.
- Pages with a sole admin whose account was memorialized will be removed from Facebook if it receives a valid request.
It is important to know that memorialized accounts that don’t have a legacy contact (someone you choose to look after your account if it’s memorialized) can’t be changed.
Users can select a family member or friend on Facebook as their legacy contact, which gives them access to their profile when they pass on.
When someone with a Facebook account passes away, Facebook memorializes the account if it receives a request to do so. For security reasons, no one can log into a memorialized account.
Facebook will then allow the legacy contact to help manage the profile after the user has passed, giving them the ability to make a memorial post at the top of the deceased user’s profile, update photos, respond to friend requests and even download an archive of their information.
The legacy contact will be able to manage all of these options from their own account, and will not be required to sign in to the deceased user’s account.
Please keep in mind too that it’s always against the Facebook Terms to log into another person’s account. You will only be given access to an account if Facebook can verify that it’s your own account.
To have a user’s account memorialized, a friend or family member must fill out and submit a Memorialization Request. You must provide proof of the user’s death, such as a link to an obituary or news article, so that Facebook can investigate and then approve the request.
The second option you have is to ask Facebook to close the account of the deceased user. Facebook will only accept this request from immediate family members, asking them to fill out a Special Request for Deceased Person’s Account.
As a Facebook user, you can choose to have your account permanently deleted should you pass away. This you can do by clicking Security from the Settings on the Facebook page, and then click on Legacy Contact. Check the box below Account Deletion and follow the on-screen instructions.
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