Internet Immortality

Nobody really dies on the World Wide Web.  This may provide comfort for grieving family and friends, or it may only serve to remind them that someone close no longer occupies the real world.

Millions of owners of active Facebook accounts are deceased, but their posts live on.  And this immortality isn’t just limited to Facebook.  A typical person has 25 online accounts, such as emails, photos, blogs, and bank accounts.  If the family doesn’t know the usernames and passwords for these virtual assets, accounts can reside indefinitely in a vast cyberspace cemetery.

See Rick Montgomery, People Who Die Can Be Virtually Immortal in Social Media, The Kansas City Star, March 15, 2014.

Special thanks to Naomi Cahn (Harold H. Greene Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.