The end of our earthly adventure is something we cannot escape (beyond some attempts that are tangible), and that means not only leaving everything in order in the real world, but also in the digital one. Social networks have debated for a long time the correct way to deal with the accounts of deceased people, and in the case of Facebook, it was decided to implement the “Legacy Contact”, a function that will allow you to assign a trusted person to partially manage your account.
Unfortunately, I am one of the many people on Facebook who have lost friends. And their accounts remain there, frozen in time, with their last profile picture and the isolated birthday greeting from those who found out too late. Facebook has a significant number of accounts in this situation... and it is a very delicate issue. For some, the accounts are like open wounds, while for others they represent the last vestige of their existence. Facebook did not blink when it decided to make some controversial decisions, but it has stayed away from the accounts of deceased people, offering a basic view, without editing capability for direct relatives.
What is Facebook Legacy Contact?
That is going to change in the future thanks to “Legacy Contact”, a new function that allows us to assign an external administrator to our account in case we die. Legacy Contact shares the essence of “trusted contacts” for restoring access to the account.
What can your Legacy Contact do?
The assigned contact will be able to do things like:
- Write a message at the top of the Timeline (to announce a memorial service, wake, etc.)
- Respond to friend and family requests from people who are not yet connected to Facebook.
- Update both profile and cover photos.
- Authorize the contact to download a general copy of the profile, including photos and messages.
What Legacy Contact does not allow is logging into the social network as the deceased person.
How to set it up and additional options
As expected, Legacy Contact is just an option, and if the user rejects it, they can tell the social network to permanently delete their account in case of death. Legacy Contact is located in the Security section of your account settings, but Facebook is enabling it gradually, so it may not appear there yet (that is what happened to my account).
