A will makes clear who can access your social media accounts after you are gone

UAE social media users can now legally bequeath their online accounts to friends or family, officials said yesterday.

The new measure ensures anyone wishing to protect their digital footprint can do so by making clear in their will who will have access.

Until now, the issue of who can use an account after a bereavement was confusing. Some platforms dictate that family members must provide an official death certificate before access is granted, while others allow partial access immediately.

Yesterday, Sean Hird, director of the Dubai International Financial Centre Wills Service, said he believed formally clarifying what happened to social media accounts after a death was a step forward.

Mr Hird said the DIFC was right to take action on the issue, and that he hoped users would now register wills or adapt existing ones to better protect their online legacy.

“It makes absolute sense to leave instructions in your will about who should and shouldn’t have access and ownership to your accounts when you pass away,” he said.

“It’s a much better option than leaving a will silent on such matters and hoping that the law will evolve in a way consistent with your wishes.”

Under the new ruling, people registering a will with DIFC Courts will be able to leave instructions on how their accounts should be handled and by whom.

The move follows a court ruling in Germany last week that stated social media accounts could be inherited.

In that case, the Federal Court found that heirs do have the right to access the Facebook accounts of deceased relatives under inheritance law, on the grounds that a social media account is a private asset in much the same way as private diaries or letters.

It found that the parents of a 15-year-old girl who died in 2012 after being hit by a train should be granted access to her Facebook page to find out if her death was a suicide.

Before the ruling, Facebook had refused access to the account citing privacy concerns about the girl’s contacts.

Under its current policy, the company allows relatives of the dead partial access to the account, granting them only a limited authority to change the page into an online memorial or to delete it.

Yesterday, Mr Hird suggested that those interested in bequeathing their online legacy should consider certain steps.

He said handing over passwords of accounts to a named beneficiary was a good idea and that instructions should be made through “express provisions in a will”.

“When we asked UAE residents in a survey last year if they would want to protect and pass on their digital footprint and social media legacy, 89 per cent said they would want their social media accounts to be deactivated,” Mr Hird told The National.

“The surest way of achieving this is through express provisions in a registered will.”

In 2008 Facebook introduced a process to ensure a deceased user no longer appeared in birthday reminders of friends, and three years ago it added settings to give users the option of having their account deleted after their death or nominating someone to turn the page into a memorial.

UAE resident Kevin Sebastian said he lost a friend whose family were unaware of how to turn a Facebook account into a memorial page.

Mr Sebastian said friends had been unsettled after receiving automatic notifications from the account after logging on to play group video games.

It makes sense to leave instructions in your will about who should have access to your account

SEAN HIRD Director of the Dubai International Financial Centre Wills Service

“It’s a shock when you get a message saying that a person you know has passed away is waiting to play with you,” he said. “Death is an uncomfortable subject. But it’s important that people are aware of these new changes.”

DIFC’s decision to make inheriting social media accounts legally binding also highlights an important issue of privacy. “It’s natural that the family will want access, it would help them with closure,” Mr Sebastian, a digital media consultant, said.

“But what if a person is estranged from their family and would not want them to have access to some information. Making it legal is a step in the right direction.”

In a breakdown of current social media requirements in respect of bereavement, the DIFC said that Facebook did allow a person to appoint a legacy contact to post a final message or memorial information on a timeline. But it said Twitter would not allow partial access, opting instead to work with a loved one to access an account once a death certificate had been issued.

Instagram, meanwhile, allows for the “memorialising” of an account after a death, but the account cannot be altered.