Facebook now let’s you bequeath your account

It finally happened. Facebook now let’s you decide who can manage your account for you when you leave this mortal coil. That’s right….The internet’s self-subscribed big-brothering service announced a new dimension to their social networking platform called “Legacy Contact”. Basically, it is a feature that allows you to name a specific person whom you can bequeath the ability to manage your Facebook account. No longer will you need to worry about “those pictures”, posted of you at a fraternity jungle party in college circa 2003, showing up at your funeral. The big FB has you covered there.

All joking aside, the guys over on Page Mill Road really do have their user’s best interest in mind with this new feature. According to the newsroom at fb.com, once FB knows that a person has passed away the account becomes memorialized and the account’s legacy contact will be able to:

• Write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message)
• Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook
• Update the profile picture and cover photo

If you’re not up for the whole let-the-internet-know-I’m-dead approach to social media, FB respects that be allowing users to have their account deleted after they have passed away. This is different than FB’s previous feature that was more of a basic memorialization of a user’s account.