The dispute was much heeded, now the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe announced his eagerly awaited verdict: Facebook must grant the parents of a dead girl as heirs access to the locked since five and a half years user account of the daughter (all backgrounds to the case here).
In the final instance, the BGH decided otherwise than the Berlin Court of Appeals, which had upheld the ban in the previous ruling. A central question of the dispute was whether the digital heritage should be equated with analogue. Letters and diaries also passed to the heirs, the presiding judge Ulrich Herrmann argued at the verdict now. There is no reason to treat digital content differently. The daughter has signed a user agreement with Facebook, and the parents have entered into this contract as heirs.
We asked a burial consultant from Berlin about digital heritage. For people who want to fix their online legacy, she has some important advice.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ms. Mielau, the BGH has just decided on a dispute on the digital heritage. Is online retirement already an issue in your work as a funeral counselor?
Juliane Mielau: Definitely . Questions are coming more and more often. Most of the current generation of older people has not left so many digital traces. But that's going to change, because many younger people are building widely ramified online presences.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What specific concerns do people have?
Mielau: Many of the first thing that comes to mind are the e-mail accounts; many people also think of popular online shops like Amazon. If a relative dies, many do not know how to close their accounts or handle them in any way. Because they do not know the access data.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: And what do people often forget?
Mielau: Think of customer cards in your wallet few. But that can have unpleasant consequences. For example, if a service sends the deceased a postal coupon punctually to his next birthday by mail and he lands with relatives.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: customer cards, Amazon account, e-mails: Do you regard yourself as a funeral director as responsible for such a thing?
Mielau: Definitely. Undertakers should relieve relatives as much as possible after a death. Ten years ago, perhaps it was only about the deregistration of the pension or health insurance of the deceased. But digitization has made the topic a lot bigger.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you go about your work?
Mielau: I first have to get an overview of which online services the deceased was logged on. For this purpose, we work together with an external service provider specializing in digital estates. At the request of the relatives, automated inquiries are made to several hundred providers via the digital estate service, if the deceased had a customer account there. Relatives then receive a list that they can view via the online portal.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: And what happens to the accounts?
Mielau: There are two options: The survivors can close and delete all found accounts or have them transferred to the heirs. The majority opts for deletion.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why?
Mielau: In many of my consultations, the sentence falls: 'I also want to be able to complete someday.' The continuity of digital accounts of the deceased, which need to be maintained, this is more difficult.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But theoretically could relatives get access to the deceased's Facebook account without knowing the login?
Mielau: No, this case is excluded. I know from experience that Facebook is very restrictive. Finally, the service must also remember that third-party messages are affected if, for example, a survivor wishes to gain access to the chats of a deceased person, as was the case in the current case. On Facebook, we only have the option to close the account. This has always worked without problems. The BGH decision, we undertakers have to look closely at us, because it will definitely influence our work. It is a groundbreaking verdict, that can already be said.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: A service with which one can erase a person digitally or control their online accounts - does not that have enormous abuse potential?
Mielau: The service we use is safe and works exclusively with funeral companies. Only persons subject to burial or persons authorized to do so can provide information.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Nobody likes to think about his death. But what can people do if they want to make as little work as possible for their relatives in terms of digital heritage?
Mielau: Nowadays, the undertaker does not just need the studbook. At best, there is a list of all online accounts, from social networks to online merchants. You can then tell a trusted person where you've written down information, such as the username for an account or the exact email address. Such provisions can relieve survivors already.