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Having a Yahoo! email account is a great tool when you’re living.  Like Gmail, Hotmail and other web based emails, it is a free tool that allows you to send and receive emails.   Before you pass away, however, it is important to make plans about what you want to happen to your Yahoo! account. If you don’t, anyone who needs to access your account will have a major a headache.  Check out this woman’s story from Yahoo! Answers from two years ago:

How can I have access to my deceased mothers yahoo e-mail account?

Unfortunately, my mother passed away recently. My parents own a limited company and at times my mother would use her personal yahoo e-mail account for business correspondance, now that my mother has passed away, my father requires access to the account. I have spoken to yahoo and they’ve told me that under the UK Data Protection Act 1998, they are unable to pass on access to the account to a 3rd party. However, having been in touch with the Information Commissioner’s Office, i have been informed that the Act only applies to those that are still alive. Furthermore, i have told yahoo that i am not illegally or fradulently trying to gain access to the account as i can provide all the necessary legal documents to state that my father is the husband of the deceased and that my mother has actually passed away. Yahoo wish to waste my time & make life difficult by stating that i need to get a court order in order to gain access to the account. Is this true, can anyone help me with this?

Unlike Google and MSN, it is clear that Yahoo’s policy is that they will not grant survivors access to deceased users’ accounts, much like Blizzard and World of Warcraft, unless there is a court order from a judge.  From Yahoo’s terms of service:

Terms of service #27: No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability.

You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.

But under member conduct #6 it says:

You acknowledge, consent and agree that Yahoo! may access, preserve and disclose your account information and Content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the TOS; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; or (e) protect the rights, property or personal safety of Yahoo!, its users and the public.

This passage in Yahoo’s terms of service basically means that if you don’t give your account information to your heirs before you pass away, the only way for your heirs, family, or friends to access your account is to take Yahoo! to court.  If you don’t give your username and password to an heir, your Yahoo! account will be locked and deleted after 90 days of inactivity.  If your family want’s access, they will have to go to court, just like the family of the US Marine who was killed in action in Iraq.  In short, if you want your family to have access to your Yahoo account without having to go to court while they are mourning your passing, you need to provide your survivors with your username and password.

You have two options to choose between when you’re deciding what you’d like to happen to your Yahoo account after you’ve passed away: give access to your heirs or have your Digital Executor delete your account.  There are pros and cons to both approaches and it is up to you to decide what is best for you.

We’ve put together the information in our Digital Executor Toolbox to help you make a decision and then provide help to your Digital Executor, the person who you’ve tasked with carrying out your wishes after you pass away.

Tags:

dead yahoo users · delete yahoo account · delete yahoo email on death