Have you ever wondered what your Facebook profile will look like after you die?
Until now, when a person has died, their Facebook page has continued to exist — essentially, unable to be altered until it’s eventually removed.
But today Facebook unveiled a new plan to help turn your page into a functioning memorial.
“Today we’re introducing a new feature that lets people choose a legacy contact—a family member or friend who can manage their account when they pass away,” Facebook said in a statement.
“Once someone lets us know that a person has passed away, we will memorialize the account.”
Related: What happened to Instagram and Facebook?
The “legacy contact” will be able to ever-so-slightly edit your page, including writing a memorial message on your wall, and changing your profile photo.
Somewhat oddly, the legacy contact can also accept friend requests.
Check out the dramatic re-design:
From what we can see, Facebook has added “remembering” above your name and shifted the tense from “lives” to “lived” beside your location.
In your legacy contact settings you can also edit the permissions of your benefactor, which can limit or extend their access to your images, posts, and profile information.
For those with a few nudie pics skeletons in their Facebook chat history, be assured you can rest in peace — Facebook won’t give anybody access to your messages.
Those who don’t want a memorial page can elect to have their account permanently erased from cyber space.
Would you want a Facebook memorial?
Top Comments
Great idea, I don't want my account to out live me.
This is a great idea but I'm concerned that providing a death certificate is optional. Surely this leaves it open to people getting a living person's profile memorialised as a joke, an act of bullying, etc.