access to email

[robtex]

http://cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/12/21/soldier.email.ap/index.html

My cut and paste isn't working so maybe somebody else can cut and paste it for me but here is the senerio in a nutshell.

A soldier is KIA'd in Iraq. His family want access to his yahoo account but do have the password. Yahoo says nope not gonna do it.

The parents reasoning is that they want the information therein as a way to remember their son by.

Should the parents have the password and the email contents?

 

[Hope]

Hmmmm...that's a toughie. Here's what I've thought of doing: giving my password to someone in my family, so that if something should happen to me, they can get in to my account. I have people I correspond with only through e-mail, and I would want someone to contact them if I should 'cease to be.'

 

[Sunstone]

I think that the parent's should have access to their son's email accounts under those circumstances. The parents would under the same circumstances have access to all their son's possessions (as next of kin), which would include any writings or correspondence their son had left behind, so I don't see what the problem would be with allowing the parents to have access to his email.

 

[Quoth The Raven]

Whose privacy are they protecting by denying the family access?

 

[retrorich]

Should the parents have the password and the email contents?

I say no. People who open Yahoo accounts OK an agreement that states that in case of their death, access to their accounts will be terminated. Let's face it, that soldier may have had some email he would rather not have others see--especially his family.

 

[huajiro]

The family can remember him without his private info. The image that they have of him right now is enough. What if it turns out that they have a great image of him right now, get in his e-mail account and disown him/her?