Death is inevitable and one day it is going to take us all, but will happen to our social media accounts once we have passed? That is a question on which I have pondered over many times and have as yet been unable to come to a satisfying conclusion. Facebook today announced a new feature addition to its service which would allow users to nominate a contact that would be able to manage their account on the world’s largest social network when they pass away.
The feature is called legacy contact and it lets Facebook users choose any contact, it can be a friend or a family member, who will manage their accounts after the inevitable happens.
Facebook says this would allow the deceased accounts to become a “memorial of their life, friendships and experiences.”
Once Facebook is notified that a particular user has passed away it will memorialize the account and allow the pre-determined legacy contact to update the profile picture and cover photo, respond to new friend requests and even write a post which will be displayed at the top of the memorialized Timeline.
Users will have the choice to give their legacy contact permission to download an archive of their photos, posts and profile information shared on Facebook over time.
All other settings will remain the same as before the account was memorialized. Legacy contacts won’t be able to see the deceased’s personal messages or log in as them.
Those who would rather want their Facebook accounts to be deleted after their death can request the same with Facebook which will permanently delete their account once they have passed.
Legacy contacts can be chosen through the Security menu. Initially this feature is only being rolled out to users in the United States first before it is expanded to all users across the globe.
Filed in . Read more about Facebook. Source: newsroom.fb