SUCCESSION OF DIGITAL ACCOUNTS
SUCCESSION OF DIGITAL ACCOUNTS

Author(s): Katerina Dulčić
Subject(s): Economy, Marketing / Advertising
Published by: Udruženje ekonomista i menadžera Balkana
Keywords: digital accounts;succession;property;
Summary/Abstract: Author is examining the consequences of the death of the contractor on different digital accounts. Methodology that is going to be used is primary analysis of actual private and legal regulations, and their comparison. First, there are different types of digital accounts, and they should be managed differently. Strictly personal accounts should be considered in one way, and professional accounts should follow the succession of the business. The social network sites offer to the user to choose the faith of their account upon their death. Mostly, it is possible to assign one person to manage the account after death, or inactivity. Social network accounts contain a wide list of services, and contain a wide spectrum of information about the user. There are copyrights on photos and texts, there are pieces of personal information and personality rights in messages and private notes. Law provides the rules for heritage of copyrights and intellectual property. Those provide to its holder the possibility to decide on their fate upon his or her death, but there are also some limits. The author compares the provisions offered by social network sites, and other digital accounts’ contracts with each other. Also, it is analyzed whether the decisions made in digital form meet the requirements of legal form of the will. Recent case in Germany, before Federal Court in Berlin, no. III-ZR-183/17, of 12th July 2018, compared the data on Facebook to diaries and memoirs and ordered the provider to give full access to the legal heirs. In this case, the deceased was a 15 years old child, and there are usually no secrets that would be morally unacceptable to be revealed to the parents. But in case of a death of an adult person, whose legal heir is the child, the question is whether the parent wants own child to browse personal messages. Also, there were parents that continued to use the account of the dead child. In that case, the situation is clear, because that is false presentation, and all social networks have that as a valid reason to block access. Professional accounts usually have protocols on how to access the account in case of illness or other leaves, so they are applied in case of death. The problem is to determine whether a certain account is personal of professional. The questions that rise are whether it is moral to access personal data of the deceased relative, or should they be lost in digital universe. This article provides the suggested solutions for preventive measures for the use of professional accounts, to avoid future legal battles with heirs, by analyzing the actual state of possible provisions.

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