Delaware Law Allows Executor Of Estate To Access Private Social Media Accounts
By Amy E. Feldman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Finally, a law on who gets access to your social media accounts after your death.
In 2011, Ricky and Diane Dash tried to find clues to explain the inexplicable - the suicide of their beloved 15-year-old son. They tried to access his Facebook account, but Facebook denied their request citing federal and state privacy laws and their own terms of use. Mr. and Mrs. Dash were not alone in being denied access to the social media and digital content of a deceased loved one and they vowed to push for a law to give them access.
When someone dies, there are estate laws that tell you how figuratively to pack up someone's stuff - money, real estate, personal items. But there was no law that specifically said who controls a person's digital assets after his death.
Now Delaware lawmakers have stepped in.
Effective January 1, 2015, the executor of a person's estate now has the same rights over that digital media as the person who set up the account did before he died, regardless of what the particular website's terms of use are. It overrides, for example, Yahoo's terms of service that say that no one gets access to anyone else's account even if the owner of the account dies.
Now if you're a Delaware resident and you're the executor of an estate, you do get access and one hopes other states will rush to pass this too so no one needs to go through what Mr. and Mrs. Dash did.
