Who Will Inherit Your Facebook Account When You Die?
MENLO PARK (CBS SF) -- You can now decide what happens to your Facebook account when you die.
The world's biggest online social network rolled out a new feature Thursday that allows its members to chose someone as their "legacy contact" to manage parts of their account after they die. There's also an option to have a member's account deleted altogether.
Previously, the accounts were "memorialized" after death, or locked so that no one could log in.
Facebook is taking that process a step further by allowing a legacy contact to respond to incoming friend requests, update the profile and header image on an account and download an archive of a deceased member's photos and other posts.
The network is also ensuring that the account of a user who died doesn't show up as a "suggested friend" or in other ways that could upset the person's loved ones.
The new setting is now available to Facebook users in the U.S. and will eventually become available in more counties.
Read more about the feature, and what a legacy contact can and can't do.
