Over on the Facebook blog, head of security Max Kelly has just explained what to do to memorialize the profile of someone who has passed away:
We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it's important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized....When an account is memorialized, we also set privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. We try to protect the deceased's privacy by removing sensitive information such as contact information and status updates. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into it in the future, while still enabling friends and family to leave posts on the profile Wall in remembrance.
If you have a friend or a family member whose profile should be memorialized, please contact us, so their memory can properly live on among their friends on Facebook.
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also what's the etiquette for deleting contacts who have died ?
I'm going to see if this has been done for my friend David. I keep seeing his page pop up in my list.
Not a bad idea on FBs part, but I fear how it will be abused. Imagine going to log in to find out you've been reported dead.
I wonder how many people have to request an account be memorialized before Facebook will take action.
Step 1: Become Facebook friends with [celeb of your choice]. Step 2: Request that Facebook memorialize their account.
www.mydeathspace.com does it better...
An ad for colon cleansing was one way someone was memorialized on FB recently:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/10/13/ns-breimer-facebook.html
Snarky writing prof. comment here: you might revise to "How to memorialize on Facebook friends who have passed away." One would presume that passing away on Facebook (i.e., by the means of, or using Facebook to record) would be its own sufficient memorialization. :D
Did you miss the field requesting a link for proof of death?
'Proof of Death - an obituary or news article'
What about those of us who don't die in news-worthy circumstances and aren't famous to warrant an obituary?
Hmm. I believe it's not that hard to make up a fake obit for somebody...
Based on how Facebook has been misbehaving lately, I have a feeling it might be terminally ill.
This is an awesome idea. I don't use facebook, so I don't know exactly how it works, but on myspace it would be a nice feature. Like sometimes friends of mine who've passed away turn up in the "people you may know" section, where myspace recommends people you may know based on them being friends with other people on your friends list. It's really unsettling for me.
I delete people who are deceased from my friends list, partly because I'm no longer going to be able to contact them through myspace and I like to limit my list to current contacts that I'm really going to interact with, but also partly because it's a bit upsetting to see the constant reminder of them being on my list and being gone. Yes, they're gone and I'm not ever going to forget them, but I don't need to see their page every time I scroll through my friends list. It's a real downer when I'm doing fun stuff like sending out invitations to parties or sending happy holiday greetings or funny videos to see my dead friends' accounts.
Giving the dead people a different memorial account setting would be the perfect compromise. It would allow people who are comforted by visiting the page to still be able to see it, but minimize people who don't wish to be reminded all the time being exposed to it.
Plus, it would keep anyone from being able to do anything malicious with someone's account after they pass. It would make it so that someone authorized like a spouse or family member could set the account as memorial then no hackers or applications or mischief makers could use the account to keep sending communications with the deceased person's network. I know on myspace that some apps can sort of communicate with very little input from the person. I'd hate to recieve invitions to join in games and such from someone who's passed away. I'd hate to get comments and messages from spam hackers that appeared to come from a dead loved one's account. And sick twisted mean people could definitely do some genuinely cruel stuff if they hacked into someone's account who had passed away. Memorial settings could really help prevent a lot of sadness.
Just a warning for people about FB's policy. Once a profile has been memorialized, it becomes locked-out for anyone who tries to log-in.
Recently, an acquaintance passed away, and some well-meaning individual decided to memorialize the profile. Unfortunately, they did so without asking the family. As a result, some videos belonging to the deceased, which were tagged private, have been lost forever. The family went to great lengths to try to get the videos, which contained some original music, but were unable to do so.
personally, it seems creepy as all hell. in the event of my death, i would want my facebook, email, livejournal, EVERYTHING to just be wiped. i'm sorry if it offends, but it seems a bit crass to memorialize someone via FACEBOOK.
I seem to remember Corey had a piece up on dealing with his digital self in his will. It was about securing info. Perhaps we need to start leaving instructions about any social networks, etc. in our wills.
I say .... this is nice an all... however people need to tell there loved ones & friends on facebook how they feel now! tell people you love them , how they make you feel now ....dont wate till someone dies! its so stupid!
I have EVERY intention of setting up some kind of auto-posting script with YEARS' worth of status updates for the amusement and horror of my former friends.
If Facebook puts the kibosh on it, I will give them such a haunting it'll make Poltergeist look like a "Casper" rerun.
My first thought was about how this is a great way to lock out accounts of people who aren't dead, and will certainly be used for that purpose enough that FB will have to torpedo the idea.
One of my friends recently passed away. Her page was turned into "[Dead Friend] Memorial", but it still pops up on my right hand column, with captions like "Catch up with [Dead Friend] Memorial!" It's eerie. For some reason I feel weird about un-friending her page, but if that keeps happening I may just do it.
"I delete people who are deceased from my friends list, partly because I'm no longer going to be able to contact them through myspace and I like to limit my list to current contacts that I'm really going to interact with....."
Why of course....
LOL @ semiotix' script, perhaps you can connect it to Twitter too
- Oh crap, I'm dead!
- Woo, I'm floating, floating.
- The Pearly Gates are actually quite nice!
- Holy crap, they let me in, sweet!
- Woo going out with my man Jesus!
- Hey @Jesus, sorry you got into trouble with your old man last night.
etc etc :p
I agree with limepies. It's kinda... I dunno, just like a large corporation trying to be personal with people. It's very creepy and feels insincere.
Can one die on Facebook? Is Facebook death a thing?
Perhaps the headline should instead read "How to use Facebook to memorialize friends who have passed away" instead of "How to memorialize friends who have passed away on Facebook".
Surely you must be aware of the staggeringly high body count from Mafia Wars.
I was killed twice on FB just the other day.
That's why theres the little box for PROOF OF DEATH.
limepies/t3hmadhatter: I agree that it may seem a little weird, but think about it. Most people (at least of my generation or younger; anyone under about 25) don't have traditional photo albums or anything like that. I have probably thousands of pictures that I've taken on trips to Europe, family vacations, road trips with friends, etc, etc. And I'm not even one of those people who brings a camera to every single party. It's just years worth of normal photo accumulation. Now, there are three places where I have those photos stored: my main computer, my external hard drive, and Facebook. If I were to die tomorrow, and someone wanted to look back at memories that they had of me, where do you think they'd look? If done right--which it sounds like Facebook is trying to do, even if they still need to work out the kinks--it can be a real memorial, just like a grave marker or a eulogy or a photo album or home videos. Odd as it may seem to older people and even some of the younger generation, social networking websites are how people communicate and stay in touch and share their lives and memories with each other. It's only natural that they would wind up being a part of someone's death as well.
I do not like this removing of stuff from the profile. I still want to see their status updates. I hope nobody does this for me. My status updates make my profile a bit more alive!
Wait, so it's not the next of kin's decision? Anyone can do it? That's really stupid.
My friend read this and memorialized me but i'm not dead!!!
Theres no way to contact facebook and i can't find any way to undo it!
I wrote about this on my blog a while ago, after finding out via facebook that a few people had died.
http://thumbsforhire.co.uk/?p=1781
i am trying to figure out how to memorialize my brothers facebook if someone could let me know thanks
Well, that will probably be a good idea in your case. But, there are people who have passed who have a bunch of friends that like to remember the deceased person...especially since he was so special. You have to be a very, very special person for family and friends to request that facebook and myspace be kept on and running.