Worried about what will happen to your Facebook account when you die? There’s now an option where you can set a “Legacy Contact” who will be allowed to manage your account after your death — but at the moment Australians can’t use it.
Facebook’s general policy is to leave accounts “frozen” after someone dies — meaning they still exist but no settings can be changed. That doesn’t allow for much flexibility.
The new Legacy Contact option allows you to designate someone who will be allowed to manage your account after your demise. That person can post a memorial message, change the profile picture, and respond to any new friend requests. Legacy contacts can’t edit existing content or choose to delete the account, however.
That sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately it’s not yet a universal one. Facebook’s announcement says that the option only works for US accounts right now, but will be expanded to other countries “soon”. We’ll keep an eye out for when that happens.
Facebook [via WSJ via Gizmodo]
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8 responses to “Facebook’s ‘Legacy Contact’ For When You Die Isn’t Available In Australia Yet”
The whole “unable to delete the account” is an interesting move…
Interesting is one way to put it, whoever I give access to my account to should be allowed to do whatever they want with it. The fact that for eternity facebook can keep my account even after I’m dead sort of annoys me to be honest :(.
We don’t need it, because Australians are incapable of dying. Facebook wants to bring death AND legacy contacts to Australia.
Thanks a lot, Facebook.
Thanks, Obama
Thanks Reddit
Ah, I thought it was just an iOS only setting, given all the instructions are for iOS app.
Also interestingly having trusted contacts to recover your account requires three trusted contacts. Wtf, isn’t two enough?
Yeah, what if you only have two friends?
Well I only have two friends I’d want to give recovery access to my account to.