An interesting ethical/legal question. I die, who can read my emails?

[partygirluk]

As reported in the Sunday Telegraph today. US Soldier goes to Iraq. Exchanges emails. States how much they mean to him and stores them in his Yahoo folder. Comes home in a coffin. Father wants to read the emails. Yahoo claim that he has a right to privacy, even in death. Paper points out that a psyhical letter is part of the estate and goes to next of kin unless specified otherwise.

What do you guys think? This is a toughie.

[_2000Flushes]

Ooooooh. Good post.

That is a tough question. On the one hand, it would be nice if everyone just looked the other way while the guys at Yahoo perused the emails to see there was anything the soldier might not want his parents to see before allowing access. But that of course would never fly legally and would be a horrible precedent to set.

If I were Yahoo, I would treat them as physical letters and grant access to the next of kin. Unless the subscriber had specifically requested that his emails be kept private, then what does Yahoo have to lose? It's not like they're going to lose credibility with future customers. They're abiding by the law and users still have the option to request posthumous confidentiality.

-2kF

[PhatTBoll]

Good points in both posts. Something that hasn't been brought up yet is the privacy issues concerning the people he was corresponding with. They have a right to privacy under Yahoo's policy just like the soldier does. In Yahoo's eyes, this right doesn't expire just because the soldier met a tragic death.

[ QUOTE ]
Unless the subscriber had specifically requested that his emails be kept private, then what does Yahoo have to lose?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't use Yahoo for email, so I'm not sure about this, but doesn't it have some kind of agreement that says Yahoo will not reveal your emails to outside sources, blah blah blah? If this is the case, then the soldier made an agreement that stated his correspondence would be confidential.

[tek]

Anyone who has access to your computer. If you have passwords on your computer, a bruteforce password hacker will do the trick.