Yahoo Criticizes Digital Asset Legislation

Many questions arise when it comes to addressing what should come of our personal digital communications after we die?  Should they be treated like physical letters for the purposes of a will?

Yahoo does not think so.  The company is now criticizing new legislation that gives executors charged with carrying out the instructions in a person’s will broad access to their online accounts.  Delaware recently passed legislation titled the “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act.”  The measure removes some of the red tape that an estate attorney or other fiduciary would otherwise have to go through to gain broad access to the deceased’s online accounts. 

In a recent blog post, Yahoo stated that the expanded access violates the initial agreement users entered into when they started using services.  “When an individual signs up for a Yahoo account, they agree to our terms of service, which outlines that neither their account nor the contents of their private communications are transferrable at the time of death.” 

Yahoo’s terms of service say it may delete an account and all of the data if it is shown a copy of the person’s death certificate.  The company argues that the new legislation does not offer the correct means to providing a family or fiduciary the information they need when dealing with the loss of a relative.   

See Zach Miners, Yahoo Slams New ‘Digital Will’ Law, Says Users Have Privacy When They Die, PC World, Sept. 15, 2014.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.