The “digital will” arrives on Facebook: who to leave your account to in case of death? Designate with Facebook Legacy Contact.
The social media giant is moving into a very delicate and specific area: death.
There are countless cases where, upon a person’s death, their social media profile remains sadly open, often with no possibility for family members to access it to remove the account.
The Facebook staff has decided to address this issue, launching the “Facebook Legacy Contact” project.
You will be able to designate your digital heir – so to speak – giving them the power to decide what happens to the profile upon their sad passing.
There are several possible options: you can designate a relative or any Facebook contact. This person will be able to download photos, contacts, and various types of shared content, but will not be able to, for example, access private messages nor will they be able to act on the profile exactly as its owner could. The system will ensure that access will not be equivalent to that of the account creator, but rather a different profile, specifically configured for this situation.
Conversely, you can decide not to designate anyone, indicating that the account can be permanently deleted by Facebook if there is no login activity for a specific period.
The official Facebook blog finally explained step-by-step the procedure for designating your “Facebook Legacy” contact, but it’s important to note that this option is not yet available to all users.
This feature has indeed been implemented only for users in the United States, but it’s reasonable to expect that this innovation will also be rolled out to European platforms and the rest of the world in the coming months.
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