When you die, what happens to your online accounts such as Facebook and Yahoo mail?

[Dream]

There are several questions here, best answer goes to person who answers the most:

If a death certificate is produced are these accounts cancelled? Is normal procedure to just leave them abandoned? If relatives wanted it closed or the deceased specified so in their will what would the individuals have to do and are the companies (Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo) under obligation to close it? If the person died as part of a crime and their death is under investigation, how would police gain access to private accounts and such?

[deusxechelon]

It stays there indefinitely unless a family member, with proof of identity, asks it to be removed. Mydeathspace.com is a collection of dead myspace users.

[Mr C.]

police dont gain access to accounts.

[Chris V]

We have to do this manually I think. Best thing is write a will with full instructions passwords and usernames and ask close relatives to close the accounts. Great question.

[largesummer678]

I've always wondered this myself

[Peteyt]

It's a very hard question to face. I mean many people, including myself, talk to people just online. What if they died, you would never know.

If you are worried about this, the best thing to do, is to give someone you trust a way to access your accounts, a password or so on, and they can remove it.

To your other question, if the crime was related to these sites, the police could access them. For example, there have been cases of cyber bullying, where law agencies have had to gain access to Myspace and other site accounts, to see exactly what went on. But if there was no reason to access these accounts, they probably wouldn't be accessed. I believe the family of the one killed, would be able to contact the site's owner, or the company that owns it. They probably would remove the account, if given proof, such as a death certificate. If they had no proof, I don't think they would, as anyone could pretend any user was dead, when he wasn't.