Should your family be able to inherit your Facebook messages?

A landmark court case in Germany has tackled the difficult reality of death in the age of social media, ruling in favor of parents who wanted to access their deceased daughter’s Facebook account and messages.

The country’s highest court ruled in favor of the parents whose daughter was hit by a train, as they wanted to determine whether her death was a suicide. If this was the case, the train driver would also be entitled to compensation.

While there are obvious privacy concerns involved in relinquishing a Facebook user’s private messages – particularly for the other recipients of said messages – the court ruled that such digital content is equivalent to diaries or letters and should thus be inherited by the owner’s legal heirs.

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