Recall all your hidden diaries and photo albums on your Cyworld and Facebook pages.
When you’re dead, do you want them exposed? Or do you want to keep them to yourself?
If you are into arson, if you embezzled money from your company, if you are having an affair, do you want the world to know?
A computer hard disc drive was recovered and there was a secret life of a dead man. It included all of the above. A request from the deceased man’s wife revealed who the man really was. A computer engineer who found it deleted all these information and let the wife keep her peace of mind.
New issues have arisen in this digital age. Should the company let the grieving family have something to remember the deceased by? Or should it honor the clients’ privacy?
ISP (internet service provider) companies have to grapple with this question.
Alison Atkins died last July of Colitis. She was 16 and was from Toronto, Canada. She was diagnosed with the disease five years ago, and had been staying home ever since.
SNS (social networking service) was the only gateway for her remain involved in the world. After her death, her SNS accounts were all shut down. So was the only connection for the family to Alison. The SNS Company said, “It is company policy.” Her mom was furious. “It is my right to know and remember my daughter. I don’t understand the company’s decision.”
The current privacy law is for the living, not for the dead. No answers are found about the deceased. But the companies are leaning towards upholding privacy.
Trust is the core value to win the customers. The company fears an impression that it gives away confidential information easily even when the customers are dead. So ISP companies have company policy on privacy. It doesn’t give away passwords to anyone besides the e-mail account holder.
For future dealings with similar problems, regulations will be made within two years. The Uniform Law Commission will look into introducing a law such that digital accounts are included along with other property. Such accounts might be among those which would be dealt with as a personal possession.