You Can Now Designate A ‘Legacy Contact’ To Oversee Your Facebook Account After You Die
This is a new feature of Facebook in which people can designate a family member or friend to manage their account once they've gone to the other side. Once Facebook is aware of their passing, it will memorialize their account and hand the reins to their legacy contact.
That person won't be able to post as the deceased, but he or she will be able to pin a post on their Timeline, respond to new friend requests, update their profile and cover pictures, and write a post to appear at the top of their Timeline, such as a date and time of the memorial service or to simply share a message.
There are other permissions a Facebook user can grant, like allowing their legacy contact to download an archive of their photos, posts, and profile information. Either way, that person will not be able to log in as the deceased or read any of his or her private messages.
"Until now, when someone passed away, we offered a basic memorialized account which was viewable, but could not be managed by anyone. By talking to people who have experienced loss, we realized there is more we can do to support those who are grieving and those who want a say in what happens to their account after death," Facebook said.
Some will view the ability to manage a deceased person's social media account as pointless, though for grieving family and close friends, this could be part of the healing process, serving as a sort of online grave site.
This is of course an optional feature, so those that are freaked out about making digital plans for their passing don’t even have to enable it. Facebook users can opt to have their online account deleted when they die, or do nothing and have the account the frozen. But for those who want the memorial option, go to Security and click on Legacy Contact at the bottom.
