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Most people prepare for where their money and property goes when they die. They make arrangements and legal preparations for who is to take care of their children, pets, and the like. But there’s one thing that’s often overlooked. It’s never a comfortable conversation, and not a very pleasant thought, but what happens to your social media accounts when you die?

I’ve known people who have passed and who’s Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. accounts are still active and appear very much as they did while they were alive.

I’ve had several people ask me about this, and to be honest before I researched it I wasn’t entirely sure what to tell them. I found several very helpful articles on the web including this very detailed one.

I tried to outline some of the more popular social media and web-based applications, but of course there are tons of different ones out there. If you have trouble with a particular web-based email or social media website, contact me and I’ll try to help.

Web-Based Email Providers

It’s a bit more complicated for families than one would think if you’ve lost a loved one and want to gain access to their web-based email account from popular services like Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and Hotmail/MSN Live. The process is two-fold: to protect the privacy of their clients and to ensure that you are, indeed, the proper person to be in receipt of the information. I’ll begin with Hotmail/MSN Live and then move on to Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.

How to Close a Hotmail Account for a Deceased Member
Hotmail/MSN Live is one of the more accommodating web-based email providers (along with Gmail) should you find yourself faced with needing to close a deceased member’s email account.

Service provider: Hotmail (@hotmail.com)/MSN Live (@msn.com and @live.com)

What they will provide: CD with complete contents of the decedent’s email account, including contacts and emails

How to submit your request: Mail or fax

How to format your request: Include the name of the account holder and their email address on all pieces of paper and documentation accompanying your request.

Include the following information with your request for the most efficient process:

• Your name, phone number and email address.
• A document that states that you’re the benefactor or the executor to the decedent’s estate and/or that you have power of attorney for an incapacitated customer and/or are next of kin.
• A photocopy of your driver’s license or other government-issued identification.
• A photocopy of the death certificate.
• The complete name, address, email address, and date of birth of the account holder.
• Approximate date of account creation and date of last login (if known). If this information is not known, please indicate that you do not know.

If your request originates from a non-English speaking country, they ask that your request be made in English, while all official documentation may be sent in its native language (legal papers stating executor status, identification, death certificate, etc.).

Within five days of the receipt of all of the information listed above, the Custodian of Records will contact you to confirm your identity and then send you the CD with the decedent’s account information.

Where to send your Hotmail/MSN Live Request

Fax #: (425) 708-0096

Mailing address: Windows Live/MSN Compliance,1065 La Avenida, Building 4, Mountain View, CA 94043, Attn: Custodian of Records

How to Close a Deceased’s Gmail Account

Service provider: Gmail (@gmail.com)

What they will provide: CD with complete contents of the decedent’s email account, including contacts and emails, pursuant to a court order and verifiable next of kin/executor status.

How to submit your request: Mail or fax

How to format your request: Send a document including the following information via fax or mail to Google. It will take about 30 days to process your request:

• Your complete name, address and email address.
• The decedent’s name (first and last) and email address.
• A copy of an email (including the FULL TEXT) you received at YOUR email address from the decedent, including complete headers.
• Proof of death (death certificate or equivalent).
• If decedent was over 18, legal proof that you are the next of kin or legal executor of the estate.
• If decedent was under 18, a copy of the decedent’s birth certificate.

Where to send your Gmail Request

Fax #: (650) 644-0358

Mailing address: Google Inc., Attention: Gmail User Support,1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

How to Close a Deceased Member’s Yahoo! Mail Account
Unlike Gmail and MSN who are nice enough to tell you how they can help you. Yahoo! isn’t so nice. Here’s the direct clause from their Terms of Service telling you that, unfortunately, you’re out of luck:

“No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.”

Yahoo! Customer Service
(866) 562-7219 or (408) 349-3300
cc-advoc@yahoo-inc.com or
mail@cc.yahoo-inc.com

Social Media Services

Facebook
As the level of interaction for personal profiles can be pretty high, Facebook has a unique feature where they will memorialize the profile of a deceased account holder. When a profile is memorialized, only current friends will be able to locate it in a search. However, a beautiful feature available is that Facebook will leave the profile wall active so friends can stop by and leave messages on the wall in remembrance.

If you find yourself needing to have a friend or family member’s Facebook profile memorialized, just click this link and you’ll be brought to a specific page to complete your request. Please note that there are no phone numbers to contact Facebook. They communicate by contact form only. Additionally, the form above is used to both memorialize and request the deletion of a decedent’s account. You can specify your preferred action on the form.

LinkedIn
Perhaps one of the simplest processes on the web, LinkedIn has a simple Verification of Death form. Complete instructions on how to submit this form and the information required can be found on the LinkedIn Customer Support Center. You can opt to submit the form either online or via fax. You will need to know the account holder’s most recent place of employment, as that’s what LinkedIn uses to verify the person’s identity. The form is simple to complete and does not require a death certificate for processing.

MySpace

Make note of the decedent’s MySpace ID.
Send an email to accountcare@support.myspace.com with the decedent’s MySpace ID, your email address, relation to the deceased and proof of death (i.e. death certificate, obituary).
Include in your request whether you would like to PRESERVE, DELETE or REMOVE INFORMATION from the profile.
Note that MySpace will not let you edit any of the information yourself, but will work with you to remove any content you may find objectionable.

Twitter
Twitter is a little more difficult. If you don’t have the username or password of the Twitter account holder, you’ll need to contact Twitter customer support. Here’s an article that outlines the steps.

Pandora
Pandora allows family members to email Pandora to delete the account of a deceased user, but if you have the login credentials you can simply delete the account yourself.

While death is never easy, hopefully this guide will help you take care of a friend or loved one’s online persona just a little easier so you can begin the healing process.

Remember, the difficulty increases with each of these processes when the person deleting or modifying the accounts is unable to recover the account holders username or password. One way to make things easier on your loved ones or friends when you pass is to keep your usernames and passwords in a secure location that they can find in case they need it. Some people on different sites have even suggested adding it to an ongoing copy of your will.