Facebook members can also opt to entirely delete their profiles after their death. Previously, the company automatically froze the accounts of deceased members which made it difficult for family and friends of the deceased to take control or update the profile; this makes the feature rather welcome, though admittedly depressing to think about.
Announcing the new feature, Facebook said:
Today we’re introducing a new feature that lets people choose a legacy contact—a family member or friend who can manage their account when they pass away. Once someone lets us know that a person has passed away, we will memorialize the account and the legacy contact will be able to:If someone chooses, they may give their legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information they shared on Facebook. Other settings will remain the same as before the account was memorialized. The legacy contact will not be able to log in as the person who passed away or see that person’s private messages.
- Write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message)
- Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook
- Update the profile picture and cover photo
Alternatively, people can let us know if they’d prefer to have their Facebook account permanently deleted after death.
Facebook spokeswoman Jodi Seth states:
" We gave this a lot of thought, and ultimately decided against it for this first version."
Facebook's legacy contact feature will initially only be available in the US.
Source: newsroom.fb.com
