I was listening to our local talk radio program on the way home from work the other day and the conversation turned to dead Facebook friends. Callers spoke about having a friend pass away but that their Facebook account remained open. It served as a kind of tribute page where family and friends could leave farewell and “miss you” types of messages on their wall.
On the flip side of things, another caller spoke of the Facebook friend that had died but in this case the wall was dead as well. There was no mention of the death, no heartfelt goodbyes posted on their wall. Apparently not everyone knew this person had died. Others might have known, but weren’t sure if it was appropriate to post on the wall.
All of this got me thinking about all of my personals ads and profiles along with various social networking accounts. What would happen to them if something should happen to me? The thought of my dating profile living beyond its creator is kind of creepy. What if someone messages me? How will my accounts be handled after my death? What if I want my Facebook account converted to a tribute page? Who, if anyone will take care of this for me?
Instead of trusting a friend or family member for this task, there’s actually a start-up company called LifeEnsured designed just for this purpose. They can either close your accounts or perform your last requests on the account. This includes things like sending out farewell messages on your behalf, updating your status as “deceased” or changing your profile listing to read in the past tense. You can specify any online account, as long as it has a user name on password.
LifeEnsured offers three plans ranging in price from free to $300 for an unlimited number of accounts. The free service is limited to five accounts and you miss out on some of their other services like Social Security Death Detection. That’s where they automatically find out you died via the Social Security Administration. With the free account you’ll have to make sure a friend or family member knows you signed up for the service so they can contact them.
Heaven forbid I get hit by a bus tomorrow, but at least now I know all of my private pics will be deleted from my online personal ads and my Facebook friends will know what happened to me with an invitation to post to my wall.










Adam4Adam