Decedent Got Mail

In Quick Fix: Accessing a Deceased Relative’s Email, Wall St. J., June 19, 2007, at D3, Theo Francis summarizes the policies of the most popular e-mail providers:

• Google Gmail — requires death certificate, a document giving authority such as a power of attorney, and the full header of the email.
• Microsoft’s Hotmail & AOL — will provide e-mail on CD to next of kin
• Yahoo — requires a court order before it will release email

Accordingly, Francis recommends that, if you want survivors to access your e-mail, you should “leave passwords where they can be found–a safe deposit box, for example, or computer file encrypted with a password they’ll figure out.”

Special thanks to Prof. Joel C. Dobris of the University of California-Davis for bringing this article to my attention.