Facebook told to grant grieving mother access to daughter's account

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

Facebook must grant a grieving mother access to her late daughter’s profile and private messages on the social network, Germany’s highest court has ruled.

In a landmark judgment for the treatment of social media data after its owner’s death, Germany’s constitutional court in Karlsruhe ruled on Thursday that parents can inherit the contract between their child and a social media platform in the same way they would be able to inherit physical documents such as diaries and private letters.

“From an inheritance law view, there is no reason to treat digital content differently,” the court said in a statement.

The woman at the centre of the case has been engaged in a years-long legal battle with the internet company over access to the account of her daughter, who was killed by a train at a station in Berlin in 2012.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/12/facebook-told-grant-grieving-mother-access-daughters-account

[forgotmylogin]

1. Why wouldn't this already be the procedure?

I know a couple of people who have died and their accounts become a "memorial".

[brooklynite]

2. "Privacy"

Not every person wants to make their social media platform accessible to their parents. Facebook policy has been that it's yours and only you can access the source material.

[forgotmylogin]

3. That makes sense.

There's probably private DMs and such. Didn't think about that.

[LeftInTX]

6. Maybe it is to protect the privacy of her FB friends and commentors

We memorialized my dad's...but he was 87.....his friends were family, business and church etc

[nini]

4. Seems creepy to me that her mother wants access to her private messages.

it's not like the daughter died under suspicious circumstances and they're trying to figure out if someone was stalking her etc..

[DavidDvorkin]

5. There is a question regarding her death

From the article: "With police unable to determine whether the 15-year-old’s death was an accident or whether she killed herself, the woman had tried to access her daughter’s Facebook profile to look at her posts and private messages."

[nini]

7. ohhhh I thought she was hit like a regular accident

I would guess then the police could get that? Not sure though.