So far, it’s just been a blip on the news, and for some reason, everyone is sympathetic to the situation. I for one, cannot understand the families, or the crackers intent on getting access to this soldiers email. What right do they have to get access to it? And do they understand that the soldier may not have wanted people to be digging through his email? What is speculated to be in his email account that would have the family’s interest?
As a debate topic, should the family, friends, or guardians) have access to your email after you have passed via petitions or court orders? Something about this isn’t right.
I personally do not think anyone should get access to this guy’s e-mail account (except perhaps under a court order necessary in the investigation of a crime which if course is not at issue here).
I can sympathize with the family here but this is a can of worms that should not be opened. Yahoo, like Swiss banks, partly thrives on the fact that people have an expectation of privacy while using their service. I for one wouldn’t want people rummaging through my Yahoo e-mail after I died (mostly because I use it as my e-mail crap-trap so rummaging around in there would likely give a distinctly wrong impression…e.g. I still have no clue why I get a zillion ads for Viagra in there).
My understanding is that the family wants to save any messages of support that their son may have received (cite), but I’m glad that Yahoo is sticking to its guns: if I want my family/friends to be able to access my e-mail after I die, I’ll leave them the password. If they don’t have the password to my account, they have no right to it.
Yahoo is doing the right thing. It’s tragic for the family and I sympathize with them but it would be a bad precident to set. People are going to have to have their password in a sealed “read this if I die” letter or something.
Maybe the family can use the media to spread the word that anyone who wrote to him should forward all email to them. They could probably get most of it that way.
Yeah, I’m definitely of two minds about this. On one hand, what’s the point of just throwing away these last, possibly meaningful electronic scraps of this young man’s existence? Won’t it be tragic that it’s lost to those who loved him and history forever?
At the same time, it probably consists of things like, “Yeah, so I was fucking this girl I met last month up the ass…” and other things that he might have wanted to keep private and could alter how his family views him. Being in Iraq, he probably knew he was at risk and if he wanted him family to have information like this, he could have made arrangements for them to get the password.