Facebook rolls out new settings for users when they die

A few years ago, a friend’s birthday reminder popped up in my timeline at some point during that day. I had planned to wish him a happy birthday until I remembered that I had been to his funeral a year earlier. People, out of the same forgetfulness, had written all kinds of sweet messages on his wall. This torment is about to end now with Facebook’s new setting.

On Facebook, one can now choose a “legacy contact” that has the option of having your account permanently deleted or taking control of some aspects of it after your death. This might seem like an unimportant setting but this matters to a great many people and will only start to matter more as Facebook’s population grows older.

This new setting, Facebook says, was the most requested by users who gave feedback on its memorial page policies. The “legacy contact”, as Facebook has termed the setting, will first be available in the US and then to other regions.

In an official blog post, Facebook writes that “By talking to people who have experienced loss, we realised there is more we can do to support those who are grieving and those who want a say in what happens to their account after death.”

Read more: Facebook introduces a novel way to let you ‘Say Thanks’

Facebook wants to make the accounts of deceased users “a memorial of their life, friendships and experience”.

The person managing the account will also be able to write a post to display at the top of the timeline (Their last words, for instance or a funeral announcement) and “respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook”.

Furthermore, users can choose to give their legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information they shared on Facebook.

In order to alleviate concerns that people will be able to uncover secrets someone’s taken to their grave, Facebook has put plans in place to ensure that the deceased accounts’ other settings will remain the same as when they were alive. The new setting does not allow the legacy contact to log in as the person who died or see their private messages.

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In November last year, Facebook introduced Say Thanks, a feature that lets users create personalised video cards for their friends. Though the company has not said anything about integrating Say Thanks to the new setting, this feature could work well with these new settings.

Up until this setting, Facebook did offer memorial accounts. These pages were viewable but could not be managed by anyone. This feature has also been redesigned, with “Remembering” now appearing above a user’s name.

To choose your legacy contact, open “settings,” go to “security”, and then go to “legacy contact” at the bottom of the page.