Infinite Path

It’s long been a subject that hasn’t sat comfortably with social networking sites but Facebook has made the decision to throw convention out the window by explaining its new stance on deaths of its members. Friends and family members will be provided with the option to, in effect, turn the profiles of deceased members into permanent online memorials.

It would seem that Facebook has put some thought into this decision, which is just as well given the sensitive nature of the changes. The company is reacting to the distress caused by some members who have continued to receive updates about contacts who have passed away.

In the new changes announced by Facebook, any user reported as deceased (the death will have to be proved by the submission of an obituary or news article) will have all sensitive information removed from their account. This will include all status updates. Furthermore, only confirmed friends will be able to view the profile.

It may seem like a trivial matter for Facebook to be highlighting; with the emotional distress that accompanies the death of a loved one, who has time to be notifying a social networking site? However, it casts new light on the growing reliance that the large majority of people place on online activity.

Loved ones are encountering more and more problems as a result of such a reliance, with important personal and financial details buried away in e-mail accounts and sensitive information potentially contained on numerous social sites unknown to relatives. The potential implications of failing to monitor closely these accounts and this data in an age of identity fraud is something that we can’t afford to ignore.

It therefore seems fair that Facebook should be applauded for tackling an issue which we may not like to discuss but which we’ll probably all have to deal with at some point in our lives.