What Happens to Facebook (and More) When You Die

Consider this: Your Facebook account is likely to outlive you. Do you really want your friends and family to have access to it? What about emails, tweets and online posts? Maybe these accounts contain items of sentimental or monetary value to your family and friends. Or maybe they’re just embarrassing information you would rather have deleted than shared.

On the other hand, imagine contacting Flickr to access your deceased spouse’s photos and learning the account was automatically deleted, along with all of the memories stored there. Flickr’s policy, and that of hundreds of digital providers, is to delete a user’s account upon notification of death.