NEWS: Yahoo Keeps Dead Soldier's Emails

GEEK: Yahoo Keeps Dead Soldier's Emails

Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb on Nov. 13th, and now his family is fighting Yahoo for access to his email account.

Back in the day, the letters and journals you left behind were some of the most treasured artifacts your family would have. If all of those things are stored on some corporation's server and you take the password to your grave, all those thoughts you had will die after 90 days of inactivity.

I don't know about you, but I sure as fuck wouldn't want my family reading all my email if I died.

Word. I used to think there ought to be some sort of service you could pay in advance to hurry over to your house, erase your harddrive, throw out your porn, throw your dirty underwear in the closet, and maybe do your dishes before your family got there after you died.

my thoughts exactly when i read this.

i'm sure there are devices like keith is talking about with dead man switches, meaning if you don't input a keyword or something by a certain interval, it shreds your hard drive with a big ol magnet or sumthin

they are probably really expensive, but if they haven't been invented yet, I have a prototype that is looking for funding!

thats actualy a really good idea... maybe a yearly charge just like life insurance.. i could definatly use that.. though it would probebly take a small truck to move all the porn... the company could even offset costs by ebaying everything they removed

The emails that I send and receive are of no archivial quality to my family. I use email for business and pleasure, and the contents are not what you want to be passed down to your parents/children/brothers/sisters as your "record of life"-- I keep a journal for that purpose.

I got a truck and a storage unit. Want to go into business? I've been toying with the idea of starting a second business and this sure seems like a damn good idea.

I have a porno buddy, where in the event of death, we would go to each other's place and take all the porn before the family gets there.

"I just want my son's effects..oh my god!!!"

My email is the LAST thing I would ever want my family reading, good for Yahoo.

Seriously. If I wanted my family knowing about all my emails I would cc/bcc them. Someone in that family has GOT to be a nosey nu nu.

BOOMSHOCKALOCKA

but then....you're dead...you're not around to give a shit

it's like worrying about what the actors on TV think about you after you've turned off the set

......well sort of

Ugh, most of the people who email me are either idiots or spammers. All my family would find would be:

"hay dewd how r u kewl lol"

or

"watch paris hilton fuck two lesbians and a rabbit!!!"

You have no right to privacy from your heirs when you die, and really, while the thought is mortifying when you're alive, dead, you're not much going to give a shit whether your mom knows what you jerk off to.

Yahoo is protecting it corporate interests over the needs of a grieving family and deserves a boot up the ass.

what would a rabbit want with paris hilton?
ugh

Would you want your Mom's perception of you to change upon death when you have no way of justifying your actions? It'd be a fucking violation. Seriously. If he'd have wanted them to see the contents of his email account then surely he would have just fucking emailed them himself? I sure as hell don't want anyone reading my emails when i'm alive or dead. Some things you keep private, for a good reason.

Hahaha, agreed! Cheers to Yahoo!!

"Men in Plaid"

That's what happens when you die. Sorry, but its a plain and simple fact. This is not about unrealistic expectations you might have about your parent's notions of you and what really happens when someone dies. This is about Yahoo not wanting to set a precedent as to a property right in your Yahoo account. Thats all. This is an artifact of a peculiar situation of a guy far from home sending a lot of E Mail and not having his own computer to archive them on. Generally speaking however if you don't want your next of kin to read your E Mail, find your toys or your bong, get rid of them or stay healthy, 'cause if you die, they're gonna.

i agree with reprobate. when i die, my heirs will get everything. if that includes love poetry i wrote when i was 16, then it also includes my email.

i suppose this can be avoided by keeping your email password attached to your will or something like that.

i would definetly second that.

This might possibly be the first and only time I agree with you on something.

i mean, come on guys. they're going to get your fucking COMPUTER. how much smut do you have on there? don't worry about it. you think that when grandpa died they didn't see that nasty butt sex porn he kept squirrled away in the bottom of his closet? people are going to see things you kept secret when you die. end of story. get over it.

I doubt very seriously he was using "his" computer, so yes, he more than likely didn't archive his emails. If there was something that he wanted them to know about, why would he of not emailed them. I feel for the family, but they do not have any claims to the gentlemans yahoo account. They might have better luck contacting friends and other family members that he did email, who might be willing to pass along what he wrote them. This isn't about protecting corporate interests over the needs of a grieving family. It's holding to the agreement that was entered when he signed up for a yahoo account. If it was something he wanted them to have he would of given the information to someone to pass along, in the event that something happened to him.