Do deceased people continue to live on Facebook? – The most important thing to start with: To ensure that data, images and accounts on various platforms do not remain uncontrolled online, the digital estate should be thought about and regulated in advance in the event of death.
What happens to data from a deceased person?
E-mail inboxes, photos, videos and chat histories in social networks as well as content in a cloud. This data remains after death.
This can mean an additional major loss for relatives if they do not get access to this data.
So you should think about it and sort it out in a timely manner. Otherwise, this data, some of which is very sensitive, will remain unchecked on the internet.
Digital inheritance inheritable
Yes, online inheritance is inheritable. Rebekka Weiß, IT industry association Bitkom, refers to a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH; Ref.: III ZR 183/17), in which the BGH ruled that the parents of a deceased girl have access to her Facebook account as heirs.
The judges made it clear that digital content is also inherited. Accordingly, heirs enter into usage contracts such as streaming services, e-book providers, cloud services or even social networks.
Hand over access data
In order for heirs to be able to access the data and thus the digital estate, they must know the necessary access data. So you should take the time and create an overview of all accounts including user names and passwords. Ideally, you store these in a safe place.
Rebekka Weiß suggests: “You can save the overview on an encrypted USB stick and keep it in a safe or bank safe deposit box.”
It is not advisable to record the access data in the will. It can often take months before the will is opened. Time is lost in which the heirs could comply with the deceased's wishes in order to be able to delete chat histories or other content.
Here it is also advisable to think about what content the survivors should see and what they should never see.
Appoint a person of trust
It is ideal to think about who could act as a person of trust in order to regulate your digital estate after your own death. To do this, you draw up a power of attorney and authorize the person in question. In addition to the date and signature, it is important to add that this power of attorney applies “even after death”.
The power of attorney is given to the person you trust. This will also be informed about where the access data for the user accounts is stored.
It is also important to inform your relatives who will be the person you trust and who will handle your digital estate.
Facebook's legacy contact
Facebook provides the option to designate a legacy contact. This can take care of the memorialized Facebook account or decide that the account will be permanently deleted.
An account is placed in memorial status when Facebook has been notified of the person's death. The deceased person's profile will display "In Memory of" in front of their name.
Virtual souvenir
Virtual memorial pages offer a contemporary alternative. Survivors can design their own digital souvenirs of loved ones and thus keep the memory alive on the Internet.
Friends and relatives can always remember - regardless of where they are.
Source: infranken.de
Article image: Facebook
If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:
📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.
Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!
* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

