Category Archives: digital assets

HIPAA for Digital Assets?

According to Professor Jason Mazzone, University of Illinois, College of Law, ” people spend an increasing part of their lives using Facebook and other online social networking sites. However, virtually no law regulates what happens to a person’s online existence after his or her death”.

The professor’s recently published a paper, “Facebook’s Afterlife”, calls for federal laws to regulate what happens to a digital account after the death of its account holder. Mazzone states that Facebook and other online service policies don’t adequately protect the individual property and privacy interests of a deceased user’s account. He says “Social networking sites determine on their own what, if anything, to do with a deceased user’s account and the materials the user posted to the site….It’s a little like letting the bank decide what to do with your money after you die.”

He suggests that HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is a comparable mandate. He wants a federal HIPAA-like law to protect peoples’ digital data after their death. It’s an interesting idea and one that is worth thinking about.

Digital Assets – Few Laws Legislate Access to Them after Death

If you own digital assets like a Facebook page or a Google email account, what happens to them when you die?  Assuming that your next of kin knows your passwords, he or she can easily delete them.  However, if your passwords are not available, shutting down these accounts can prove problematic.  Each email or social media company has specific rules governing the disposition of its accounts and refuses to vary from those rules.  Some allow an executor or next of kin with suitable proof of death to close an account.  Others do not, making this writer wonder if those accounts will just float around cyberspace forever.

Many people feel that there should be laws governing all digital assets in the same way that other personal property is currently legislated.  However, even though digital assets have become a big part of our lives, there are only five states that have even begun to legislate what happens to them after your death – Connecticut, Rhode Island, Indiana, Oklahoma and Idaho. 

Here’s a summary of what the current laws cover:

1.  Connecticut’s law, enacted in2005, only covers email.  That’s not too surprising considering that the explosion of social networking sites hadn’t occurred when the bill was being formulated.  Facebook didn’t start until 2004, when it was launched as a site for use only by students attending specific colleges and Twitter began in 2006.  The law states that an email service provider must give the executor or administrator of the estate access to or copies of the contents of the account if the deceased lived in Connecticut at the time of his death. 

2.  Rhode Island, in its 2007 law, also limited itself to email and is very similar to Connecticut’s.

3.  Indiana’s law focuses on electronically stored documents of the deceased.  This could include email as well as many other digital assets.  The 2007 law says that the “custodian” of the electronically stored documents will provide to the personal representative of the deceased’s estate (if the deceased was living in Indiana at the time of death) access to or copies of any stored documents or information. 

4.  Oklahoma’s 2010 law is much more comprehensive.  It says that the executor or administrator of an estate will have the power to “take control of, conduct, continue, or terminate any accounts of a deceased person on any social networking website, any microblogging or short message service website or any email service websites.”

5.  Idaho’s law, which became effective in 2011, is virtually identical to that of Oklahoma.

On January 5, 2012, Senator John Wightman of Nebraska introduced a bill in his state legislature that would be similar to that of Oklahoma and Idaho.  However, according to Wightman, the methodology of how the government would access account information and forward it to an estate representative has not yet been determined.  In addition, several people have asked whether anyone but the owner of an online account should have the right to view and control its content.   Wightman agrees that the bill may have to “be modified in some way to take account of the privacy issues as to whether or not they’ll be able to view the content.” 

Why do you think so few states have tackled this issue so far?  Do you think your state should have legislation that would control access to your digital assets after your death?

To find out more about digital assets and what currently happens to them when someone dies, pick up a copy of our book, Grave Robbers…How to Prevent Identity Theft of the Deceased,   or check out the information at https://diesmart.com/

Social Security numbers – will online access be cut off?

Last week, Representative Sam Johnson of Texas introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that, if passed, will limit access to Social Security numbers available online.

The act, entitled “Keeping IDsSafe Act of 2011” (KIDS Act), is intended to end online access to the Social Security Death Master File. This file currently enables anyone to easily locate the Social Security number of a deceased person. The File has been used for more than ten years by identity thieves to, among other things, file bogus tax returns to the IRS and collect refunds.

The bill was introduced two days after senators met with the Social Security Administration Commissioner, Michael Astrue, to ask the agency to limit information currently released in the death file.

As reported in a recent Scripps Howard News Service article, the need for access to this file to be limited was graphically illustrated when the parents of Benny Watters of Lake Forest, Illinois filed a tax return in August of this year. Benny died at age 5 in September 2010 and the Watters tax return was rejected. Why? Someone else had stolen the boy’s identity and claimed him as a dependent!

There have been recent news reports that say the IRS flagged 350,000 potentially fraudulent 2010 tax returns requesting $1.25 billion in refunds using information gathered about the dead.

The bill introduced by Johnson would limit access to the death file to law enforcement. Tax administrators and government researchers.

To find out more about this topic and other online identity thefts, check out “Grave Robbers…How to Stop the Identity theft of the Deceased.”

When I Go Away: Getting Your Digital Affairs in Order

I just read an article which talks about the need to leave information about your online accounts so your heirs will know what they have to deal with after you die. It’s well worth reading for the information it provides. What it doesn’t tell you is exactly what you have to do to close out or memorialize those accounts. Grave Robbers, our book about how to prevent identity theft of the deceased, does. In addition, there’s information on our site about how to handle the most popular digital sites.

Who Owns Your Digital Assets When You Die

Digital assets are making dying even more complicated.    As more and more of our life is portrayed in a digital form, a key question is evolving in the legal community:   “Who Owns Your Digital Assets When You Die?”

The  New York Times posted an interesting article regarding your digital assets,   “Cyperspace When You Are Dead.”

Today, there are no common policies or laws covering the disposition of your digital assets when you die.    In fact, each Internet Service Provider sets their own policy.    Google is different than Facebook.   Facebook is different than Yahoo.   In some instances, businesses may find they can’t get access to hosted accounts because someone doesn’t leave behind their passwords.   You can find out the policies regarding your digital assets at Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Comcast, etc. at diesmart.com.