New York – Along with the explosive growth of email, social media and other online accounts opened around the world in the recent year, is a trove of personal digital data most Internet users find easier to leave dangling in cyberspace than to manage carefully and securely.
But what happens to our digital data – and who controls our personal online legacies – when we die? It’s a question that raises both legal and ethical concerns, which can leave families and friends frustrated when trying to control a loved one’s online afterlife.
Facebook owns all contents
When he took his own life in 2010, Benjamin Stassen, 21 , seemed like a carefree , well – adjusted Wisconsin college student. Since his death, his parents have searched, mostly in vain, for clues to help them understand his desperate act.
‘’We’ve had such an overwhelming experience with Benjamin’s death, “ says Alice Stassen , his mother.