November 16, 2009 • 25 mins
Social networking sites are popular ways to communicate, but what happens to them when their users become deceased? Jonathan and Chris explore social networking after death in this episode of TechStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with
tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everyone,
and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polett,
(00:20):
and I'm the tech editor here at how stuff works
dot Com. Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior
writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So, uh you like pumpkins?
I do like pumpkins, like pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pancakes.
I like pumpkin cookies, like those pumpkin lattees that you
can get over at the Starbucks. I like pumpkin seeds
(00:41):
have been roasted for a long time. And you know
what I really like was that chunkin pumpkins. I was
gonna say, if you're gonna do that, you know, I
have all those things you gotta you have to bust
some pumpkins. Yeah, and you know what, there's no more
effective way than busting a pumpkin than by propelling it
several hundred feet into a field. You know, I I
kind of doubt that, but it's nowhere near as much
(01:02):
fun as doing it. It's definitely the one of the
more spectacular ways to get at pumpkin enterds. Well, if
you're going to do that, then you should probably tune
in on the Science Channel in November twenty six for
the Road to Punkin Chunkin and then at nine o'clock
Punkin Chunkin. Yes, eight and nine o'clock. Those are when
those shows come on. You get to see all how
(01:23):
all these these folks put together various pumpkin propelling devices,
so everything from catapults to trebuches, two cannons to there's
a centrifugal one where it has to make a full
rotation before it can release the pumpkin. Release the pumpkin.
I like to pretend like there's some sort of besieging
(01:43):
army that is being pelted by pumpkins. That would be fun.
I would definitely turn around and run if I I
saw pumpkins flying at me at high lost. Yeah, no, kitten,
But yeah, you guys should check that out. Yeah, let's
move on to our topic of discuss ship. Yes, today
it's a little bit more somber. Although in the past
we've discussed somber stuff, we've been accused of being a
(02:05):
little too somber. So we're gonna be goofy, what happens
after you die and you've got all these social networks? Um?
So yeah, No, this is actually a question that's that's
getting some traction. Uh, what's a good question because because
we didn't have to worry about this stuff until recently, right,
more and more of us are getting involved in having
some sort of online presence on a social network like
(02:28):
Facebook or Twitter, my Space or whatever, um even flicker
things like that. And as we do that, we have
to start asking ourselves some pretty tough questions like if
I if I were to pass away, if I were
to die somehow I walked out of here and got
hit by a bus, what happens to that information? Does
it stay there forever? Could someone else access it? Could
(02:51):
people who hated me leave really nasty messages about me
after I die, making my family and friends upset? Assuming
I have any friends. I mean, we're doing a hypothetical here,
right right, But I mean that that's the thing is
that in all these cases, you know, it's all sort
of hypothetical because it depends on who you're talking about. Yeah, so,
(03:12):
because you know, anybody and everybody is creating a social
networking and there there are no guidelines in the United
States at any rate to official rules suggest Yeah, there's
nothing that's there are no laws in place that species
specify what social networking sites can and cannot do, or
you know, any kind of rules they should follow should
one of the members pass away. Uh, that hasn't stopped
(03:35):
some of the sites from formulating their own policies. And
we'll get to that in a second. But a lot
of what happens depends upon you and your family. So
let's start with what you can do in order to
protect your your online presence, or even just as a
way of letting people you know online what has happened.
(03:57):
I mean, there there are people who have lots and
lots of friends who their main and sometimes only way
of connecting with these people is through social networks. I mean,
I've got a ton of friends that, UM, I don't
email them, I don't call them, but I see their
updates on Facebook. I might see a tweet from them
something like that. UM. So if I were to die,
(04:20):
how would how would how would I How would anyone
get the word out to them? UM? Here's some options
you can have. One, of course, is that you make
a record of all your user name and password information
and you entrust that to someone. Now you can get
because most most sites that do have policies require somebody
(04:42):
to notify them with official proof. Right. So, but let's
assume that the site you're we're talking about here doesn't
necessarily have an official policy. Now, they may handle things
on a case by case basis. But if you wanted
to try and just do a blanket approach so that
no matter what the site was, your family wouldn't have
to go through the process of contacting the site verifying
(05:05):
your death that kind of thing. Um, all they would
have to do is they would have the the information there.
They could just go ahead and log in into the
to your account. So you could create a record of
all your log in information and give it to someone,
or you could use a service like legacy Locker, which
allows you to store use your name and password information
(05:26):
for a fee, an annual fee or an upfront one
time cost. I think the one time cost is right
now and the year lea fee is I think is twenty,
so they would store the information for you. Uh. Some
people suggest that maybe that's not the best approach because
it's a weak point of attack. If a hacker were
(05:49):
to somehow access that information, they would have all of
your log in information for all of your sites. Uh.
Some people suggest that one thing you could do is
just give half of your inform nation to one source
and the other half to another. So you might give
your user names to one person and the passwords to
another and not let them know who the other one was,
(06:13):
like the secret formula. But then how do they know
to hook up after you've passed away and then get
all the information out? Or you could tell them about
each other. Or you could lock one set in a
company like Legacy Locker and that has the the uh,
the directions to release that information upon your death, and
(06:33):
then the person would have the first half of it
could put together in the access the information. It seems
like you could put it in a safe deposit. Poah,
you could do that too. The issue that has brought
up often is that most people don't even think about it,
and even when right, yeah, you draft a will, you
don't necessarily think who gets my Facebook? You know, just
(06:55):
you're you're worried about this? Yeah, yeah, they don't think
of pro troofiles like property. Yeah, I mean you're not
talking about it. Who takes care of your kids and
what happens to the house, and you know who's going
to get the cat right, and and it also concerns
other people. It's not like your profile is just your information.
So on let's let's use Facebook as an example again,
(07:17):
because that's that's one of the most recognizable social networking
sites in the United States. I would argue it's the
most and and they have a policy which but with Facebook,
you know, you've got your information that you've put into
your profile, but there's also all the information people have left,
like if they've flagged photos of you, if they've left
(07:39):
messages on your wall, if they've you know, if you've
installed applications that allow people to interact with your profile
in various ways. There's a lot of different information there
that is not technically generated by you, and so that
raises questions too, like who owns that information? Now, if
you read the terms of service, technically Facebook does, Facebook
owns the rights to display all that information. But um,
(08:02):
but you know, again, if you're applying this to other
sites across the internet, depending on the terms of service,
it's you know, it's a tricky situation. It's not necessarily
cut and dry. So um, but let's say that, you know,
let's say that you have not set aside all your
user name, password information. You haven't you have not collected
(08:22):
your log in information for someone to get hold of
after your death, and then well you can't do anything
really because you know, you're just kind of moldering in
the grave. You know, you're such an outlet. They're pretty
much done as far as the uh, the whole pursuing
the social networking thing goes. I mean, there may be
a death book out there, but um, I'm not privy
(08:46):
to it yet. Yeah, you know they're they're anyway. Um. Oh,
well that's true, but we won't. We don't need to
get into that yet. But um but yeah, so what
can your family and friends do? So, in the case
of Facebook, again using them as an example, you have
to contact Facebook officials and give them proof. Uh you
(09:08):
know that someone somebody you know has passed away, someone
with a Facebook profile, because they don't care if it's
you know, just some random person. Seriously. Okay, well I'm
just pointing. I'm just saying it because someone's going to
write in, Uh, there's an online form. Facebook has an
actual online form that you go in and you fill out.
You include the person's name and their profile information and
(09:29):
an obituary. You know, you have to have a link
to an obituary or some news article like, uh, you know,
let's say that your friend um, you know, burned up
on reentry after being shot through the air by a tribute.
I'm just saying that would have to be an awfully
powerful tribute to get them outside the atmosphere. I'll show
you my plans after the podcast, but you have to
(09:52):
you have to send them proof. Yeah, so you've sent
them the proof and then Facebook's what they what they
will do is they give you two options. The family
and choose to either close the account, which means that
Facebook will delete all that information. It will be gone.
Anyone who was friends with you will now see an
empty spot. There will there will there will no longer
(10:12):
be a you in that friends list. The other option
is to turn it into a memorial site, a memorial profile. Now,
memorial profiles are special in that the only people who
can interact with memorial profiles are pre existing friends, people
who were friends with with the person before they died,
So random people cannot suddenly befriend a dead person. And
(10:36):
leave messages on that person's memorial wall. Only the people
who are already friends can leave any sort of messages.
They can only post to the wall. Really, they cannot
UH status updates things like that, those are all deleted.
Personal identification information can also be deleted, things like UH addresses,
phone numbers, that kind of thing, So to prevent people
(10:59):
from just ending UH information or letters or whatever to
the family. A lot of families say that while they
understand the compassion that strangers may have for someone who
passes away, it can actually make it more difficult to
deal with the grieving process when people are constantly bringing
(11:20):
it up to you and you have you know, there's
no you have no connection to these people because they
are getting something off their chest. But you can't really
you know, if you don't know them, there's no way
to kind of reciprocate that, right, So you just get
more and more burdened on you while these people are
expressing compassion UH. And it's it's a difficult thing because
(11:40):
you know, as a compassionate person, of course, I would
feel sorry for someone who had lost a person that
was important to them, even if I didn't know who
that person was. But I don't want to add more
burden to the griever then they're already experiencing. So that
information is taken away. The SaaS updates are taken away,
(12:02):
which is probably a good thing because you know, it
depends on what your last status update was. You do
not want your last stas update to say something like, dude,
I was so drunk last night. I don't even know
the person I woke up with. That would be an
awkward last word to have on your Facebook, So that
gets deleted. But friends and family can leave messages on
(12:24):
your wall, and many of them use the Facebook a
sort of a gathering place to grieve and to heal
and to offer support to one another and to share
memories of the person who has passed away. And uh,
and in that sense, it's a it can be a
very valuable asset for people who are trying to deal
with the loss. Um. But yeah, so those are your
(12:47):
two choices. That's that's the two basic choices. And uh,
not every site does this. Not every site has a
specific policy to handle this kind of situation. And like, um,
my Space for a really long time, I mean that
the thing about my Space was they handled everything on
a case by case basis. Yeah, yeah, so um yeah, right,
now there's information up at the site and it says
(13:08):
that you need to provide um an obituary or a
death certificate, and they give you an email address to
send it to you, and you write from a personal
email address and explain your connection to the person who
has passed away and your request to delete the profile
entirely or to you know, remove certain parts of it.
It doesn't appear that there is some kind of a
(13:29):
memorial account um. Of course, in either case you have
to let them know because otherwise, you know, they have
no way of knowing. So then the account will just
continue indefinitely until somebody says, hey, you know this person
is no longer around yeah Facebook. Facebook specifically UM states
that they will not delete a user account UH for
(13:51):
inactivity at all. You you have to either request it
yourself or again if someone has way. Someone has to
be able to requested improved that the person has passed away,
so the otherwise the the account will just sit there forever.
And of course if it's not turned into a memorial account,
all the rules are out the window. The sas updates
(14:12):
are still gonna be there. People can leave whatever messages
they want. People. If you have not set your profile
to private, people will be able to find you in search.
They cannot find you in search if your account has
been turned to a memorial account, if they are no longer,
if they have never been your friend, they won't be
able to find the profile. Um so all of that
is off the table. If no one speaks up on
(14:34):
your behalf when you pass away, your account will just
sit there indefinitely until Facebook itself crumbles to the to dust.
But uh um, yeah, I mean that's that's something to
think about. Two. I mean it's weird to think about
this because really, to the people who have passed away,
it's not really gonna matter. You know, you, You no
(14:55):
longer need to have earthly concerns like who is leaving
what on your profile. It's more for the people who
are left behind. Which is a weird way to think
about it, because your profile is a very personal thing.
It's all about you, but all of it, Yeah, it's
all about It's all about the people who knew you.
So it's a weird, weird. Wait, you have to shift
(15:18):
your thinking when you get to this this kind of situation.
Uh So, let's uh, think about some other elements of
social networking passing away. UM. Facebook has a specific policy
in place that it will not divulge login information to anyone, right, so, uh,
(15:40):
your privacy is protected in that sense. There no one's
gonna be able to log into your account unless they're
able to guess your password or you've given your password
to someone. Uh. No one's gonna be able to log
into your account and change anything, which is good because
that would also be very upsetting to see someone's profile
change after they've passed away. Yeah, that's a very sick joke. Uh,
(16:03):
even if it's done with the best of intentions, I
would imagine that would have some pretty nasty repercussions from
friends and family who would think it would not be
kind of crass. So uh so Facebook does not give
that information out to anyone. UM. And when it converts
a profile into a memorial profile, there's no way to
log into that profile, even if you have the user
(16:25):
name and password. So if if you've given the user
name and password to someone, but they choose to convert
your profile to two memorial status, uh, no one will
be able to get into that and make any changes
from that point on. Um and again other sites, it's
more of a case by case basis. A lot of
them haven't really thought of it. I mean, when you're
creating a social networking site, this is the sort of
(16:46):
thing that's like furthest from your mind. You're really trying
to think of ways to create an environment where people
can connect with one another and use your application and
uh and and have it grow in popularity. You're not
necessarily thinking, oh, what do I do if someone passes away? Um.
Then suddenly you you get confronted with an email. You know,
you just completed around venture capital funding and you're thinking
(17:09):
about how cool it is that you have this new
side up, and then suddenly somebody goes, hey, you know,
I hate to buggy about this, but you know, yeah, So,
I mean it's a it's a difficult situation. It's not
and it's not something that it's fun to think about
by initiation imagination, but it is something that's worth thinking about. Yeah,
And I mean because a lot of this information, I
(17:29):
mean it sort of depends on the account, but this
information is out there on the server somewhere, and eventually,
who knows where it's gonna end up. And you know,
I shall also point out that we're recording this uh
in early November two thousand nine, late October two thou nine,
Facebook made this this sort of approach official. But they've
(17:53):
been the company had been doing this for a couple
of years. It was just it was quiet. I mean,
you you could contact them and you could have profiles
converted to memorial profiles. UH already. It's just that they
kind of they kind of made it an official announcement
in October. Part of that is probably due to Canada,
because there are major concerns about online privacy in Canada,
(18:18):
and a lot of companies that are springing up that
are all about social networking raise concerns in the Canadian
government's mind about not that the Canadian government has one mind,
but the minds of government officials in Canada that um
that perhaps they are not as careful about protecting privacy
as they should be. And when Canada started looking into
(18:42):
things like that specifically at Facebook, one of the elements
in there was, you know, I have a have a
well defined policy of what happens if someone were to
pass away and what would be done with that person's information.
So that probably has something to do with it. And
I suppose that probably also means that there are other
sites that are working on developing policies that can be
clearly outlined. And I would imagine so, and you know,
(19:05):
you think about it, there's so many sites out there.
I just think of all the different sites that this
applies to. And it's not just the things like Facebook
and my Space. It's yeah, I mean I checked on
Twitter and didn't see a thing, you know, photo photo
sharing sites, YouTube, YouTube videos. Um, I mean, goodness knows
that YouTube is already one of those places where I
(19:27):
think the nastiest comments on the Internet kind of pop
up on YouTube. Stuff on there. It's YouTube and four chan.
That's what the two places where you're gonna see the
the the most tool curling, frightening stuff. Ever, that's not
a knock against four Chan. I'm just saying, you go
into that random channel, you are you are taking your
(19:48):
Internet in your own hands. My friends, Um, those guys
they play off and now, I mean, you know they
find it fun, so more power to them. They're mostly
doing it to each other. So uh but the yeah, YouTube,
same sort of thing, not same sort of thing, but YouTube.
You see like these comments that can be really really critical.
You don't want to see that popping up after someone
(20:09):
passes away. What what if they're keeping a video journal
and people are leaving nasty comments on that last video
journal entry. That's something that the family and friends are
are possibly going to want to to revisit, as you know,
this is a memory of someone they knew and it's
the most recent version of whatever. And yeah, so there
are a lot of things to think about, and we
(20:30):
don't have answers for all of this because once again,
technology is moving faster than culture is. And uh, I'm
sure that we're going to see a lot more movement
on this in various ways. We're probably gonna see a
lot of missteps where people are going to do what
they think is the right thing. It's gonna come back
and blow up in their face. It's just bound to
happen because we're human beings. We make mistakes. Um. The
(20:52):
thing important thing to remember is that I think everyone
has the the same goal in mind, which is to
respect the members who joined the community. Um. It may
be that they take the wrong path, but I think
as long as everyone keeps that understanding, uh, we will
eventually get to the right solution. I think Facebook is
(21:14):
definitely on the right track. I can't really find any
fault in in their process. No, and it's uh, it's
pretty well thought out, you know, with different different contingencies.
And you know the fact that there is a memorial
account is pretty nice. Ye. Yeah, I would like to
say right now, I hope I don't see one for
(21:35):
a really long time. So so to all my Facebook friends,
eat your venis. Unless you're allergic, then don't. Okay, got
anything else, Okay, let's let's move on to a little
listener mail. This listener mail comes from ROSEMARYE. And Rosemary says, Hi, guys,
(22:02):
I really like playing the old games on the original
versions of Nintendo and have been rather confused by how
duck Hunt and similar arcade games work. The gun console
has kind of left me bewildered, and I would like
to learn about it. I don't know if you have
covered this in a podcast or not, but I'm really
curious in knowing how it works. Thanks much, Rosemary. Well, Rosemary, Uh,
(22:22):
we have an article about this. It's actually a very
short one, but I'll give you a kind of a
rundown on how the light gun works for video games.
So light guns have a little sensor in them called
a photo diode in the barrel. All right, that's since
since his light that comes from your television screen. When
you pull the trigger, it causes it sends a signal
(22:45):
to the video game. It makes the television flash for
a second. It flashes very very briefly. That's what the
flash you see whenever you're playing Duck Hunt or Gumshoe
or any of those other games that involved the light gun.
And when that screen flashes, what's happening is it's blanking
the screen and painting just the target a single color.
(23:06):
So you're either getting a black screen with a white
object or a white screen with a black object. And
if the diode is able to pick up that object,
it counts it as a hit. So it all has
to do with sensing light. And it does this really
really fast, so we just see the screen flicker. We
don't necessarily see the actual, you know, outline of the object.
But that's why you'll see that that quick flash whenever
(23:29):
you're playing with those old light gun games. And um,
it's kind of a neat, neat way of a really
creative way of causing finding a new user interface for
video games I thought it was pretty cool. So, um,
now the newer games are different there. They don't necessarily
use that same technology like the WE games. They use
(23:50):
that that's using an accelerometer and other elements to detect
where your WE mode is pointed. There's an infrared ray,
there's a sensor that's that's a different monster altogether. We're
talking about the old games here. It would be it
would have to be constantly flashing as you use your
you know, WE remote as, and then those of us
(24:11):
with epilepsy would really hate playing games, yes, exactly. Fortunately
that's not how it works, So Rose Marie, I hope
that answers your question. If any of you have any
other questions, concerns, criticisms, suggestions for episodes, you can email us.
Our email address is tech stuff at how stuff works
dot com. Remember we've got our live show every Tuesday
(24:32):
one pm Eastern. You can find that at the blogs
at how stuff works dot com. Just look on the
right hand side and uh, if you want to learn more,
there's actually an article up on the site about what
happens to my online personal information after I die? Written
by yours Truly that was a real joy to research.
Let me tell you um, but that's also available how
stuff works dot com and Chris and I will talk
(24:54):
to you again really soon. For more on this and
thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot
com And be sure to check out the new tech
stuff blog now on the House Stuff Works homepage, brought
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
(25:15):
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with
tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everyone,
and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polett,
(00:20):
and I'm the tech editor here at how stuff works
dot Com. Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior
writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So, uh you like pumpkins?
I do like pumpkins, like pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pancakes.
I like pumpkin cookies, like those pumpkin lattees that you
can get over at the Starbucks. I like pumpkin seeds
(00:41):
have been roasted for a long time. And you know
what I really like was that chunkin pumpkins. I was
gonna say, if you're gonna do that, you know, I
have all those things you gotta you have to bust
some pumpkins. Yeah, and you know what, there's no more
effective way than busting a pumpkin than by propelling it
several hundred feet into a field. You know, I I
kind of doubt that, but it's nowhere near as much
(01:02):
fun as doing it. It's definitely the one of the
more spectacular ways to get at pumpkin enterds. Well, if
you're going to do that, then you should probably tune
in on the Science Channel in November twenty six for
the Road to Punkin Chunkin and then at nine o'clock
Punkin Chunkin. Yes, eight and nine o'clock. Those are when
those shows come on. You get to see all how
(01:23):
all these these folks put together various pumpkin propelling devices,
so everything from catapults to trebuches, two cannons to there's
a centrifugal one where it has to make a full
rotation before it can release the pumpkin. Release the pumpkin.
I like to pretend like there's some sort of besieging
(01:43):
army that is being pelted by pumpkins. That would be fun.
I would definitely turn around and run if I I
saw pumpkins flying at me at high lost. Yeah, no, kitten,
But yeah, you guys should check that out. Yeah, let's
move on to our topic of discuss ship. Yes, today
it's a little bit more somber. Although in the past
we've discussed somber stuff, we've been accused of being a
(02:05):
little too somber. So we're gonna be goofy, what happens
after you die and you've got all these social networks? Um?
So yeah, No, this is actually a question that's that's
getting some traction. Uh, what's a good question because because
we didn't have to worry about this stuff until recently, right,
more and more of us are getting involved in having
some sort of online presence on a social network like
(02:28):
Facebook or Twitter, my Space or whatever, um even flicker
things like that. And as we do that, we have
to start asking ourselves some pretty tough questions like if
I if I were to pass away, if I were
to die somehow I walked out of here and got
hit by a bus, what happens to that information? Does
it stay there forever? Could someone else access it? Could
(02:51):
people who hated me leave really nasty messages about me
after I die, making my family and friends upset? Assuming
I have any friends. I mean, we're doing a hypothetical here,
right right, But I mean that that's the thing is
that in all these cases, you know, it's all sort
of hypothetical because it depends on who you're talking about. Yeah, so,
(03:12):
because you know, anybody and everybody is creating a social
networking and there there are no guidelines in the United
States at any rate to official rules suggest Yeah, there's
nothing that's there are no laws in place that species
specify what social networking sites can and cannot do, or
you know, any kind of rules they should follow should
one of the members pass away. Uh, that hasn't stopped
(03:35):
some of the sites from formulating their own policies. And
we'll get to that in a second. But a lot
of what happens depends upon you and your family. So
let's start with what you can do in order to
protect your your online presence, or even just as a
way of letting people you know online what has happened.
(03:57):
I mean, there there are people who have lots and
lots of friends who their main and sometimes only way
of connecting with these people is through social networks. I mean,
I've got a ton of friends that, UM, I don't
email them, I don't call them, but I see their
updates on Facebook. I might see a tweet from them
something like that. UM. So if I were to die,
(04:20):
how would how would how would I How would anyone
get the word out to them? UM? Here's some options
you can have. One, of course, is that you make
a record of all your user name and password information
and you entrust that to someone. Now you can get
because most most sites that do have policies require somebody
(04:42):
to notify them with official proof. Right. So, but let's
assume that the site you're we're talking about here doesn't
necessarily have an official policy. Now, they may handle things
on a case by case basis. But if you wanted
to try and just do a blanket approach so that
no matter what the site was, your family wouldn't have
to go through the process of contacting the site verifying
(05:05):
your death that kind of thing. Um, all they would
have to do is they would have the the information there.
They could just go ahead and log in into the
to your account. So you could create a record of
all your log in information and give it to someone,
or you could use a service like legacy Locker, which
allows you to store use your name and password information
(05:26):
for a fee, an annual fee or an upfront one
time cost. I think the one time cost is right
now and the year lea fee is I think is twenty,
so they would store the information for you. Uh. Some
people suggest that maybe that's not the best approach because
it's a weak point of attack. If a hacker were
(05:49):
to somehow access that information, they would have all of
your log in information for all of your sites. Uh.
Some people suggest that one thing you could do is
just give half of your inform nation to one source
and the other half to another. So you might give
your user names to one person and the passwords to
another and not let them know who the other one was,
(06:13):
like the secret formula. But then how do they know
to hook up after you've passed away and then get
all the information out? Or you could tell them about
each other. Or you could lock one set in a
company like Legacy Locker and that has the the uh,
the directions to release that information upon your death, and
(06:33):
then the person would have the first half of it
could put together in the access the information. It seems
like you could put it in a safe deposit. Poah,
you could do that too. The issue that has brought
up often is that most people don't even think about it,
and even when right, yeah, you draft a will, you
don't necessarily think who gets my Facebook? You know, just
(06:55):
you're you're worried about this? Yeah, yeah, they don't think
of pro troofiles like property. Yeah, I mean you're not
talking about it. Who takes care of your kids and
what happens to the house, and you know who's going
to get the cat right, and and it also concerns
other people. It's not like your profile is just your information.
So on let's let's use Facebook as an example again,
(07:17):
because that's that's one of the most recognizable social networking
sites in the United States. I would argue it's the
most and and they have a policy which but with Facebook,
you know, you've got your information that you've put into
your profile, but there's also all the information people have left,
like if they've flagged photos of you, if they've left
(07:39):
messages on your wall, if they've you know, if you've
installed applications that allow people to interact with your profile
in various ways. There's a lot of different information there
that is not technically generated by you, and so that
raises questions too, like who owns that information? Now, if
you read the terms of service, technically Facebook does, Facebook
owns the rights to display all that information. But um,
(08:02):
but you know, again, if you're applying this to other
sites across the internet, depending on the terms of service,
it's you know, it's a tricky situation. It's not necessarily
cut and dry. So um, but let's say that, you know,
let's say that you have not set aside all your
user name, password information. You haven't you have not collected
(08:22):
your log in information for someone to get hold of
after your death, and then well you can't do anything
really because you know, you're just kind of moldering in
the grave. You know, you're such an outlet. They're pretty
much done as far as the uh, the whole pursuing
the social networking thing goes. I mean, there may be
a death book out there, but um, I'm not privy
(08:46):
to it yet. Yeah, you know they're they're anyway. Um. Oh,
well that's true, but we won't. We don't need to
get into that yet. But um but yeah, so what
can your family and friends do? So, in the case
of Facebook, again using them as an example, you have
to contact Facebook officials and give them proof. Uh you
(09:08):
know that someone somebody you know has passed away, someone
with a Facebook profile, because they don't care if it's
you know, just some random person. Seriously. Okay, well I'm
just pointing. I'm just saying it because someone's going to
write in, Uh, there's an online form. Facebook has an
actual online form that you go in and you fill out.
You include the person's name and their profile information and
(09:29):
an obituary. You know, you have to have a link
to an obituary or some news article like, uh, you know,
let's say that your friend um, you know, burned up
on reentry after being shot through the air by a tribute.
I'm just saying that would have to be an awfully
powerful tribute to get them outside the atmosphere. I'll show
you my plans after the podcast, but you have to
(09:52):
you have to send them proof. Yeah, so you've sent
them the proof and then Facebook's what they what they
will do is they give you two options. The family
and choose to either close the account, which means that
Facebook will delete all that information. It will be gone.
Anyone who was friends with you will now see an
empty spot. There will there will there will no longer
(10:12):
be a you in that friends list. The other option
is to turn it into a memorial site, a memorial profile. Now,
memorial profiles are special in that the only people who
can interact with memorial profiles are pre existing friends, people
who were friends with with the person before they died,
So random people cannot suddenly befriend a dead person. And
(10:36):
leave messages on that person's memorial wall. Only the people
who are already friends can leave any sort of messages.
They can only post to the wall. Really, they cannot
UH status updates things like that, those are all deleted.
Personal identification information can also be deleted, things like UH addresses,
phone numbers, that kind of thing, So to prevent people
(10:59):
from just ending UH information or letters or whatever to
the family. A lot of families say that while they
understand the compassion that strangers may have for someone who
passes away, it can actually make it more difficult to
deal with the grieving process when people are constantly bringing
(11:20):
it up to you and you have you know, there's
no you have no connection to these people because they
are getting something off their chest. But you can't really
you know, if you don't know them, there's no way
to kind of reciprocate that, right, So you just get
more and more burdened on you while these people are
expressing compassion UH. And it's it's a difficult thing because
(11:40):
you know, as a compassionate person, of course, I would
feel sorry for someone who had lost a person that
was important to them, even if I didn't know who
that person was. But I don't want to add more
burden to the griever then they're already experiencing. So that
information is taken away. The SaaS updates are taken away,
(12:02):
which is probably a good thing because you know, it
depends on what your last status update was. You do
not want your last stas update to say something like, dude,
I was so drunk last night. I don't even know
the person I woke up with. That would be an
awkward last word to have on your Facebook, So that
gets deleted. But friends and family can leave messages on
(12:24):
your wall, and many of them use the Facebook a
sort of a gathering place to grieve and to heal
and to offer support to one another and to share
memories of the person who has passed away. And uh,
and in that sense, it's a it can be a
very valuable asset for people who are trying to deal
with the loss. Um. But yeah, so those are your
(12:47):
two choices. That's that's the two basic choices. And uh,
not every site does this. Not every site has a
specific policy to handle this kind of situation. And like, um,
my Space for a really long time, I mean that
the thing about my Space was they handled everything on
a case by case basis. Yeah, yeah, so um yeah, right,
now there's information up at the site and it says
(13:08):
that you need to provide um an obituary or a
death certificate, and they give you an email address to
send it to you, and you write from a personal
email address and explain your connection to the person who
has passed away and your request to delete the profile
entirely or to you know, remove certain parts of it.
It doesn't appear that there is some kind of a
(13:29):
memorial account um. Of course, in either case you have
to let them know because otherwise, you know, they have
no way of knowing. So then the account will just
continue indefinitely until somebody says, hey, you know this person
is no longer around yeah Facebook. Facebook specifically UM states
that they will not delete a user account UH for
(13:51):
inactivity at all. You you have to either request it
yourself or again if someone has way. Someone has to
be able to requested improved that the person has passed away,
so the otherwise the the account will just sit there forever.
And of course if it's not turned into a memorial account,
all the rules are out the window. The sas updates
(14:12):
are still gonna be there. People can leave whatever messages
they want. People. If you have not set your profile
to private, people will be able to find you in search.
They cannot find you in search if your account has
been turned to a memorial account, if they are no longer,
if they have never been your friend, they won't be
able to find the profile. Um so all of that
is off the table. If no one speaks up on
(14:34):
your behalf when you pass away, your account will just
sit there indefinitely until Facebook itself crumbles to the to dust.
But uh um, yeah, I mean that's that's something to
think about. Two. I mean it's weird to think about
this because really, to the people who have passed away,
it's not really gonna matter. You know, you, You no
(14:55):
longer need to have earthly concerns like who is leaving
what on your profile. It's more for the people who
are left behind. Which is a weird way to think
about it, because your profile is a very personal thing.
It's all about you, but all of it, Yeah, it's
all about It's all about the people who knew you.
So it's a weird, weird. Wait, you have to shift
(15:18):
your thinking when you get to this this kind of situation.
Uh So, let's uh, think about some other elements of
social networking passing away. UM. Facebook has a specific policy
in place that it will not divulge login information to anyone, right, so, uh,
(15:40):
your privacy is protected in that sense. There no one's
gonna be able to log into your account unless they're
able to guess your password or you've given your password
to someone. Uh. No one's gonna be able to log
into your account and change anything, which is good because
that would also be very upsetting to see someone's profile
change after they've passed away. Yeah, that's a very sick joke. Uh,
(16:03):
even if it's done with the best of intentions, I
would imagine that would have some pretty nasty repercussions from
friends and family who would think it would not be
kind of crass. So uh so Facebook does not give
that information out to anyone. UM. And when it converts
a profile into a memorial profile, there's no way to
log into that profile, even if you have the user
(16:25):
name and password. So if if you've given the user
name and password to someone, but they choose to convert
your profile to two memorial status, uh, no one will
be able to get into that and make any changes
from that point on. Um and again other sites, it's
more of a case by case basis. A lot of
them haven't really thought of it. I mean, when you're
creating a social networking site, this is the sort of
(16:46):
thing that's like furthest from your mind. You're really trying
to think of ways to create an environment where people
can connect with one another and use your application and
uh and and have it grow in popularity. You're not
necessarily thinking, oh, what do I do if someone passes away? Um.
Then suddenly you you get confronted with an email. You know,
you just completed around venture capital funding and you're thinking
(17:09):
about how cool it is that you have this new
side up, and then suddenly somebody goes, hey, you know,
I hate to buggy about this, but you know, yeah, So,
I mean it's a it's a difficult situation. It's not
and it's not something that it's fun to think about
by initiation imagination, but it is something that's worth thinking about. Yeah,
And I mean because a lot of this information, I
(17:29):
mean it sort of depends on the account, but this
information is out there on the server somewhere, and eventually,
who knows where it's gonna end up. And you know,
I shall also point out that we're recording this uh
in early November two thousand nine, late October two thou nine,
Facebook made this this sort of approach official. But they've
(17:53):
been the company had been doing this for a couple
of years. It was just it was quiet. I mean,
you you could contact them and you could have profiles
converted to memorial profiles. UH already. It's just that they
kind of they kind of made it an official announcement
in October. Part of that is probably due to Canada,
because there are major concerns about online privacy in Canada,
(18:18):
and a lot of companies that are springing up that
are all about social networking raise concerns in the Canadian
government's mind about not that the Canadian government has one mind,
but the minds of government officials in Canada that um
that perhaps they are not as careful about protecting privacy
as they should be. And when Canada started looking into
(18:42):
things like that specifically at Facebook, one of the elements
in there was, you know, I have a have a
well defined policy of what happens if someone were to
pass away and what would be done with that person's information.
So that probably has something to do with it. And
I suppose that probably also means that there are other
sites that are working on developing policies that can be
clearly outlined. And I would imagine so, and you know,
(19:05):
you think about it, there's so many sites out there.
I just think of all the different sites that this
applies to. And it's not just the things like Facebook
and my Space. It's yeah, I mean I checked on
Twitter and didn't see a thing, you know, photo photo
sharing sites, YouTube, YouTube videos. Um, I mean, goodness knows
that YouTube is already one of those places where I
(19:27):
think the nastiest comments on the Internet kind of pop
up on YouTube. Stuff on there. It's YouTube and four chan.
That's what the two places where you're gonna see the
the the most tool curling, frightening stuff. Ever, that's not
a knock against four Chan. I'm just saying, you go
into that random channel, you are you are taking your
(19:48):
Internet in your own hands. My friends, Um, those guys
they play off and now, I mean, you know they
find it fun, so more power to them. They're mostly
doing it to each other. So uh but the yeah, YouTube,
same sort of thing, not same sort of thing, but YouTube.
You see like these comments that can be really really critical.
You don't want to see that popping up after someone
(20:09):
passes away. What what if they're keeping a video journal
and people are leaving nasty comments on that last video
journal entry. That's something that the family and friends are
are possibly going to want to to revisit, as you know,
this is a memory of someone they knew and it's
the most recent version of whatever. And yeah, so there
are a lot of things to think about, and we
(20:30):
don't have answers for all of this because once again,
technology is moving faster than culture is. And uh, I'm
sure that we're going to see a lot more movement
on this in various ways. We're probably gonna see a
lot of missteps where people are going to do what
they think is the right thing. It's gonna come back
and blow up in their face. It's just bound to
happen because we're human beings. We make mistakes. Um. The
(20:52):
thing important thing to remember is that I think everyone
has the the same goal in mind, which is to
respect the members who joined the community. Um. It may
be that they take the wrong path, but I think
as long as everyone keeps that understanding, uh, we will
eventually get to the right solution. I think Facebook is
(21:14):
definitely on the right track. I can't really find any
fault in in their process. No, and it's uh, it's
pretty well thought out, you know, with different different contingencies.
And you know the fact that there is a memorial
account is pretty nice. Ye. Yeah, I would like to
say right now, I hope I don't see one for
(21:35):
a really long time. So so to all my Facebook friends,
eat your venis. Unless you're allergic, then don't. Okay, got
anything else, Okay, let's let's move on to a little
listener mail. This listener mail comes from ROSEMARYE. And Rosemary says, Hi, guys,
(22:02):
I really like playing the old games on the original
versions of Nintendo and have been rather confused by how
duck Hunt and similar arcade games work. The gun console
has kind of left me bewildered, and I would like
to learn about it. I don't know if you have
covered this in a podcast or not, but I'm really
curious in knowing how it works. Thanks much, Rosemary. Well, Rosemary, Uh,
(22:22):
we have an article about this. It's actually a very
short one, but I'll give you a kind of a
rundown on how the light gun works for video games.
So light guns have a little sensor in them called
a photo diode in the barrel. All right, that's since
since his light that comes from your television screen. When
you pull the trigger, it causes it sends a signal
(22:45):
to the video game. It makes the television flash for
a second. It flashes very very briefly. That's what the
flash you see whenever you're playing Duck Hunt or Gumshoe
or any of those other games that involved the light gun.
And when that screen flashes, what's happening is it's blanking
the screen and painting just the target a single color.
(23:06):
So you're either getting a black screen with a white
object or a white screen with a black object. And
if the diode is able to pick up that object,
it counts it as a hit. So it all has
to do with sensing light. And it does this really
really fast, so we just see the screen flicker. We
don't necessarily see the actual, you know, outline of the object.
But that's why you'll see that that quick flash whenever
(23:29):
you're playing with those old light gun games. And um,
it's kind of a neat, neat way of a really
creative way of causing finding a new user interface for
video games I thought it was pretty cool. So, um,
now the newer games are different there. They don't necessarily
use that same technology like the WE games. They use
(23:50):
that that's using an accelerometer and other elements to detect
where your WE mode is pointed. There's an infrared ray,
there's a sensor that's that's a different monster altogether. We're
talking about the old games here. It would be it
would have to be constantly flashing as you use your
you know, WE remote as, and then those of us
(24:11):
with epilepsy would really hate playing games, yes, exactly. Fortunately
that's not how it works, So Rose Marie, I hope
that answers your question. If any of you have any
other questions, concerns, criticisms, suggestions for episodes, you can email us.
Our email address is tech stuff at how stuff works
dot com. Remember we've got our live show every Tuesday
(24:32):
one pm Eastern. You can find that at the blogs
at how stuff works dot com. Just look on the
right hand side and uh, if you want to learn more,
there's actually an article up on the site about what
happens to my online personal information after I die? Written
by yours Truly that was a real joy to research.
Let me tell you um, but that's also available how
stuff works dot com and Chris and I will talk
(24:54):
to you again really soon. For more on this and
thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot
com And be sure to check out the new tech
stuff blog now on the House Stuff Works homepage, brought
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
(25:15):
are you
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