People write wills to designate who should receive their material possessions upon their death. What happens to your digital possessions, though? What happens to the years of photos of delicious meals you’ve eaten, and snarky posts railing against the evil of anti-vaccinators? How will people know which team you cheered for in Super Bowl XLIX, or your opinion on the Net Neutrality debate after you’re gone? Facebook launched a new feature called Legacy that lets you assign someone to manage your account when you’re dead.
Up to now, Facebook has managed the death of members by simply freezing the account. The Facebook profile still existed, but nothing new could be added and nobody actually had access to control or manage it. The legacy contact is a much more elegant and sympathetic way for Facebook to address the death of a member.
Legacy contact has limited power
Before the legacy contact is activate, Facebook has to verify that you’re actually dead and memorialize your Facebook account. A family member or friend must notify Facebook that you’re deceased, and provide proof such as an obituary, death certificate, or some other documentation indicating you’ve died.
The Facebook legacy contact can write a post that will be pinned to the top of the profile as an announcement of a memorial service or funeral proceedings, a final message, or any other information they wish to share. The legacy contact can also respond to new friend requests and change or update the profile and cover photos.
You’re not simply handing over your Facebook profile, though. There are also things the legacy contact can’t do. The legacy contact will not be able to delete posts or pictures, or remove friends, and the legacy contact will not be able to access any of your private messages in Facebook Messenger—so all the nasty things you said about the legacy contact to your other friends behind his or her back will remain secret.
Choose a Facebook Legacy Contact
To assign a legacy contact for your Facebook account click on the arrow at the upper right of Web page and select Settings. Then click Security in the left pane and you will see Legacy Contact listed at the bottom. You can edit the legacy contact setting to designate a family member or close friend to manage your account in the event of your untimely demise. There is a checkbox to allow your legacy contact to download a copy of your Facebook posts, photos, videos, and information from the About section of your profile. You also have the option of simply having Facebook permanently delete your account rather than selecting a legacy contact.
The legacy contact you select will not be notified that he or she has been selected. You’re welcome to let the person know that you’ve designated him or her as your legacy contact, but Facebook won’t notify them until it receives proof of your death and memorializes your Facebook profile.
When you assign a contact Facebook pops up an auto-generated message you can send if you wish. The message states, “Since you know me well and I trust you, I chose you. Please let me know if you want to talk about this.” Some people may not be comfortable with the responsibility involved in being the caretaker of your Facebook legacy, so it might be a good idea to have that conversation.
Nobody likes to think about death—especially their own. The thing is you never know when it might occur. Hopefully you’ll live a long, happy, fruitful life and die peacefully when you’re 110 or so. But, you might get hit by a bus tomorrow. After you’re dead it will be too late, so it’s better that you take some time to think of what will happen when you die and make the arrangements you can like writing a will and designating a legacy contact in Facebook.
Now we just need the rest of our digital identities to catch up. What happens to all of the music and movies I’ve purchased from iTunes? Will all of my Pinterest pins just live on in perpetuity in an online “zombie” existence?
