When someone passes away, they leave behind a lot of things, such as family members and of course all the things in life that people relied on them for. What’s more, Facebook profiles and other social media pages are left unattended, even though they’re not the most important.
Now, Facebook has made it much easier for users to memorialize accounts in order for them to become places where family members and loved ones can gather together to remember someone who has passed. A new feature from the social network lets you choose a person to serve as the caretaker of your account once you’re gone.
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Before this new system was enacted, pages were usually frozen by Facebook once it became apparent the owner was no longer with us. Now, trusted users and Facebook friends can be appointed as a ‘legacy contact’ and will be given the somber responsibility of managing the memorial process of the account.
These legacy contacts can post text content, change the account’s profile picture, respond to new friend requests, and also download a complete archive of the content posted to the account they’re maintaining. Private messages and communications are locked for users however, so there’s no need to worry about your personal messages being exposed after you’re gone.
The legacy contact option is limited to a single Facebook friend, but also on top of the new feature Facebook have agreed to let people who are named in a legal will to be given access to the feature. You can also have your account deleted in the event of your demise.
The responsibility of being a legacy contact is a sacred pact between you and the person you choose – the person can’t shrug off this responsibility to someone else if they agree to it, it’s just too much of a big deal to go against the decision made by the account’s former owner.
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It’s a sad and difficult affair for family members to tie up loose ends of a person’s affairs after they pass away, and social media should be the least of their worries among the myriad of legal hurdles presented to them after a loved one passes. Thankfully this new legacy contact feature from Facebook should make things easier.
You can now select your legacy contact now by heading to account settings, then the security tab on your account – the feature is presently a North american only one, but hopefully it’ll be made a worldwide affair soon.
Via: Techspot
Via: Wall Street Journal