IT Professionalism and Practice: The Ethics of Dead People Online

This essay delves into the complex ethical considerations surrounding the online presence of deceased individuals, particularly within the context of social media platforms like Facebook. The research examines the challenges faced by social networking sites in managing the profiles of deceased users, a significant issue given the millions of inactive accounts. The essay explores concepts such as memorialization, which allows for the preservation of a deceased person's online presence, and the ethical implications of monetizing these profiles. It also addresses the practical difficulties in differentiating between inactive and deceased users, and the importance of respecting the digital legacy of individuals. The essay further investigates how social media has evolved from a platform for connecting people to a source of revenue, emphasizing the impact of deceased users on revenue generation. The study proposes solutions to mitigate the issues, such as implementing features that allow for account deletion or memorialization, and highlights the need for clear policies regarding digital assets after death. Overall, the essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the ethical and practical dimensions of managing online profiles of deceased individuals, which is a growing concern in the digital age.

IT professionalism and practice

The Ethics of Dead People Online
Abstract
The research on the ethics of Dead people basically helps the managers of social
networking sites to identify the profiles of the decreased people. This is purposively required
because there are millions of people have their accounts on Facebook but half of the population
among those account holders are consists of the profiles of dead peoples. This experiment will
help those IT professionals who are rapidly adding innovative features on the face book or other
social networking sites. As per the study, this ethics is performed to remove the number of
Facebook users who are dead and the individual profile will not going to operate anymore.
This is study will completely help them in deleting those accounts on face book whose
owners are no more exits in the world. There are over 30 million profiles of dead people and this
number is rapidly increasing day by day. In order to minimise the increasing dead people's
profile on Facebook in near future Facebook owners are enhancing the feature which allow
operator of social networking site to remove those accounts or permit the access of account to
friends and family member of the individual. This essay is aimed at generating the main outcome
that the people who are dead need to be forgotten or censored because a live person generally
performs various activities they might share feelings thoughts or any photographs so the memory
of the deceased person will be preserved in the form of memorialisation. This will help in
acquiring the instructions of those who individual whose presence are no more exists in the
world.
INTRODUCTION
The ethics of dead people online is the concept where the account of those people will be
activated who is still alive. This concept will help in understanding the total number of live user's
profiles are present on the social networking sites. This study will create the complete
understanding about identification of deceased people. This research will provide total figure of
dead people listed on Facebook and other social media by using a SEO tool. This help us to
explore the upcoming feature of Facebook which allow society in preserving the digitally
transmitted thoughts, observations, photos and commentary of the people who are no longer
contribute or respond to the society.

This essay will also focus towards the introduction of new feature on social networking
site which detects the deceased person. The new feature include options like, after an individual
dies then who will be access the private information present in the Facebook profile. The report
will also help in providing the ethical knowledge about the method of remembering someone
after the website or blog will shut down or it will be no more accessible.
PRINCIPLE CHALLENGES
It might be very difficult for the networking sites controller to differentiate between the
profiles of those live users who have forgotten the ID password to the people who are no more
exist in this world or they are literally dead. So it can be considered as the major problem in
which critically identifying the existence of people as compared to deceased profiles. There is
also a another option of Memorialised account which help in activating the profile of the
particular user which help in predicting the virtually dead person (Landsberg, 2018). This
institutional memory helps live users in continuously interacting with the profiles of those users
such as leaving notes on the funeral or on a slip of paper at a grave.
It is a major problem to track those profiles. For instance Abraham Lincoln had quoted
and posted his speeches, observations and ideas on the Facebook many years ago when he was a
live person. But we are still acquiring their observations, thoughts and teachings after the
completion of 150 years of his death. So as long as Facebook will continue to extract values from
those people who are using applications to interact with people, so the Facebook will preserve
those conversations, comments and memories which surrounds the dead people.
The right to be forgotten is the concept which needs to be buoyant this needs to be
ethically practised which help in providing the memorialisatoion of the person who will never
interact with the society after deceased. In the memory of all those people whose provides or
accounts are still exists but they are coincidently no more live in this world.
METHOD
Social media was originally designed in February, 2004 as a fun activity which was
invented with the aim of connecting students and youngsters. Gradually it had become the source
of modern communication in most of the multiple ways (Miller and Truog, 2008). This had
changed the lives of human and encouraged various ways of interactions and communications
that ultimately leads to mediated relationships and closeness that generally people experiences
throughout the online networking sites. After the successful completion of 10 years many issues

were arrived such as the problem of what will be happen to the accounts of those accounts who
are dead. So people had experienced many complications regarding the user profiles of those
people who no more exist or died. In order to remove the social networking profiles of deceased
people, Facebook organisations have come up with the ultimate solution of preserving their
profiles and all the information which belongs to someone who is died. There are huge number
of dead people who are still listed on social media that will be resulted in wrong estimation of
total live Facebook users so steps need ed to be taken in order to fortify those profiles of
inevitable users. This will be helpful in obtaining the correct figure of live users who are still
using the Facebook accounts (Westerman, and et.al, 2012). This figure generally do not include
such users which are Following are the detailed description provided regarding such issues.
Memorialisation
This concept will allow the continues access of all those people who have created their
profiles on social networking sites but since the death of individual those accounts are no more
activated. So for this purpose Facebook will add the functionality or a major feature in the home
page of the individual profiles. This feature will ensure activated profile of a person which in the
form of memories. This is basically required to track total number of live account users on the
face book. This will be possible by tracking the comments and activities of the public. It can be
referred as the social behaviour which keeps on the user who is naturally fades from the living
memory. This will help the society to remember one's observations, thoughts and teachings in
order to acquire their perceptions after their death.
The death scarce was another black eye for the social media and its organisation. In fact,
''memorialisation' of the users profile leads to the creation of new policy and code which is
recently implemented by Facebook in order to mitigate inherent problems regarding the
inevitable deaths of the people who had once shared their photos, thoughts or memories on social
networking sites (Post and Whitehouse, 2015). This option was introduced since 2015 after so
many complaints from the near and dear ones of those who passed away. This option was named
as “memorialize” which was basically aimed at estimating the total number of live users exists
and removing or cancelling the accounts of those who are deceased or death and not be able to
operate their social media sites which have to be destroyed. The account can be permanently
deleted of memorialised which allows people to continuously share the memories which they
have with the deceased person so using this technique of reporting and automation Facebook will

be able to generate an accurate list of deceased profiles within a minimum time period of three to
four months after they passed away. And this can be possible by scanning techniques of
Facebook which allows operators to scan text of posts and interactions in order to identify the
those statements which help in determining the death of the person such as rest in peace, etc.
Facebook does work to identify profiles of deceased people they are adding an extra
feature to the functionality of social networking sites. This will allow user to add that person
whom user want to allow for having access of account after their death. Once a person died then
people may also help the social networking companies by reporting such profiles so that it will
result in permanently deleted account.
Monetization of Dead People profiles on Social Media
Social media and the changing experience of Life and death is able to bring the
concerning issue into the minds of the large population (Alderson and Morrow , 2011). So
basically this experiment is performed in order to protect the information and social media
accounts of the people who are uncertainly died so their digital legacy will be as important as
accounts of their social networking sites. People are generally engaged in multiple owned
business it might be in the form of social media. Monetization is referred as the process of
converting or establishing something into legal tender which allows the access to profiled of
those who are dead. It usually determined as generation of fiat currency which can be obtained
through social media games and subscription Social media have provided a large platform
which provides multitask among the various users which had become a great source of earning in
the form of Fiat currencies which is earned through games and multiple activities. In this
situation if Facebook company includes more then half of the profile and accounts of dead
people then this will be hard for them to generate revenues. It has become the great source of
revenue generations for the people who explore themselves and in exchange they get followed,
subscribed or liked by large number of masses of world that ultimately helps them in generating
money (Opp, 2017). So in this situation if profiles of dead people will be there then it would be a
great barrier to the company which leads to great low revenue generation.
Monetisation can greatly impact as the profiles of the dead people can still exist after they
passed away it is referred as the biggest challenge as it Facebook also counts of those people
which are still activated. So in order to get the correct estimated number of live people company
have introduced some more features in 2015. In spite of this, how will the business of the people

be work because there are lot of accounts are of those people who are dead. In order to improve
this situation almetrics help us in understanding the measuring the impact of the research on dead
people online. This helps in identifying the alternative of such solutions. These matters a lot as it
helps in determining the solutions which result in introduction of more features which ensures
that the account of dead people will be either deleted or it will be memorialised. This helps in
easily accessing the data which is generally tracks the comments such as RIP etc. if profiles of
those people will still exist in social networking sites then it will never be activated again for
activity purpose but it will be of no use. The cost of preservation is usually small even if the
number of dead Facebook users will be outnumber the living in hundreds of years till the social
networking site such as Instagram, Facebook, tweeter, youtube etc. are involved survive.
People are exploring their talents and many more ideas as they are sharing their activities
and this is also likeable by large number of people so this helps them to generate revenues from
this source (Beauchamp and Walters, 2014). Social media had been also emerged as the simplest,
fastest and cheapest method of earning for many users which had rapidly increased several ideas
in order to generate the income. So in this situation if accounts of those who cannot be able to
react more will affect the revenue generation process of the company.
Security and Privacy of the Dead
It can be considered as the idea in which the accounts of dead people who are
uncertainly dead then it might be possible that their personal information may be used as a prime
suspect for the criminals. So in this situation this secured data if the person need to be secured
against the fraudulent activities (Moreman and Lewis eds., 2014). Their confidential data need to
be kept secret and protected. Nowadays people are dealing with large number of own business
which can be functioned through the proper functioning of the these social networking sites. So
what happen to their private data after they passed away. Facebook had also provided a smartest
feature of privacy in options which allows every user to protect the data and provide privacy to
the activities which are performing by a particular account on the daily basis.
Protecting the Privacy of the data which is posted on social networking sites is a major
issue after the death of the person. In many countries legal laws are established in order to
provide access of the private data to the family or friend so that privacy of the information will
be provided to the legal person after the death of an individual. Social media generally exposes

the personal information of the person so in order to protect the data from an unauthorised user
Facebook have introduced a feature which asks the user that what will be going to happen of
their private information after the death (Wilkinson, 2002). It might be permanent deletion of the
account or it might be possible that family or friends may get access to operate the account or
turn the account into memorialised profile which generally allows profile to interact with the id
of the deceased person in the form of sharing the memories photographs or feelings. It is
basically performed top provide digital legacy to the Facebook user. This aimed at
protecting the digital identity of the person after the death.
The Right to Be Forgotten
This concept help in understanding about the providing an ultimate solution to the
profiles of deceased people. The right to be forgotten is basically a concept in which data of the
dead person will be completely removed from the social networking sites so that third person
cannot use those informations for the wrong intention of performing criminal activities
(Mijajlović, Malkovand Mitić, 2013). This concept was made against sharing the private
information of the individual who is no more exist in this real world. So regarding this issue
Facebook have provided a functionality in which live person is able to decide that what happens
to their private information after one's death. This help the company in providing the access of
information to the authorised person after the person passed away. Kind of protection generally
varies but by default families of the individual have access to the private information of the
deceased. It might be shared data, memories or thoughts which are shared by the person at the
time when one was alive. Authorised person will be able to decide weather the account of the
deceased person need to be permanently deleted or it can be turned into memorial account. In
this case generally user might not want their families to have powers in order to access the
sensitive content which is found on the social media profiles. So the legal recognition of post-
mortem privacy would allow user to decide about what wold be going to happen to their data
after their death.
This concept has recently received a legal attention in order to change the law (Howell and
Avolio, 2016). It was specially accepted in England where legal decision are partially depended
on the judgements of the users. This was basically done to protect the personality and privacy in
order to provide right to be forgotten. A legal model was designed which suggests that the user
have a right to choose that what happens to their digital data after death. Establishment of the

legal law leads to introduction of additional features in the settings. This resulted in introduction
of digital republic Act 2016 in France which allows the invention of option namely Facebook
legacy contact or inactive account manager. This tool in the software allow the user to choose
weather thay want account to be permanently deleted or user may select a nominee who can have
access to the data on social networking sites.
But in many countries legally allow and ensure that post mortem of privacy needs t6o be
considered and it might be arise the problem where personal data is not currently protected of
those users who are dead.
Digital Legacies
The advancement of technology has made our world full of digitised elements. Social
media platform is not only used in terms of interactions and communications but it have provider
a wider concept in which one can also share live moments of individual existence. This has
resulted in creating a new type of property of the person in which can be in the form of digital
property which can be utilised having internet or cyberspace (Rockwood, and et.al, 2006). This
has no physical boundaries and in this situation legal rights need to be redefined in the form of
ownership of digital identity's transferability and duration of ownership etc.
People generally prefer to store treasured informations in early days in the form of paper
diaries, photographs and all those physical items which contains feelings, thoughts and memories
of an individual. But with this advanced technological world, people nowadays prefer top share
information, thoughts and feelings through a online process which can be shared to the large
number of people within a second. In order to formulate this information internet have provided
with large platforms in the form of social media such as Instagram, Facebook, tweeter etc. so in
this regard social networking sites had provided a brilliant feature which help in accessing the
account of those who no more exist in the world. This feature will also include the option that is
memorialisation of the digital account in which near and dear ones are allowed to share their
memory, photographs, thoughts and feelings with the account of the dead person.
It can be identified that it has the value of approximately $25 billion and this is already
increasing day by day as more captured lives in the form of digital entities. So people have to
consider digital legacy which allow the another authorised access of the digital accounts after the
person dies. It can be referred as the practice of handling social media accounts to human

beneficiaries. This can be done in the form of providing rights to access social media accounts to
someone who can access digital media or assets after the one dies. Digital assets can be
considered as the any information of the person which is stored digitally which can only be used
by an authorised person that generally asks for email address and password. Digital essays
includes several components such as digital photographs, online accounts, social media profiles
and Fiat currencies which is generated by a virtual world (Farmer, 2003). So main purpose of
this report is what happens to the digital accounts on social media of the person after his /her
death. So in this situation digital legacy deals with the authorisation of digital created after the
death of an individual (The ethics of dead people online, 2018).
So it can be the matter of great concern because it also contains various digitally owned
business. So these digital assets needs to be protected against frauds and criminal activities.
Making provisions for digital assets is a wider issue these days because and it required to be
handed over to another nominee in order to access the digital information after the death of
someone. So there is a various practical things in this respect which need to be done in order to
protect the digital legacy of the people. First is making a proper list of digital assets ensures the
user that they are having a particular account on a specific social networking site which needs to
be timely monitored or destroyed after the person dies. Second is safe place needs to be decided
in order to store all the digitised information such as personal chats, photos, comments fiat
currency etc. Third thing consists of that information which belongs to a person who has owned
a then profile required to be timely reviewed. Fourth thing includes updating the will or power of
attorney that consists of all the digital assets (Paul-Choudhury, 2011). In order to developing a
protected area which cannot be overlooked or ignored at the time of storing the digital
information. A digital estate memorial employs a combination of digital technology which
includes online memorials for the benefit of deceased person which can be performed in the form
of communication, data storage and messaging so that as years passed on the legacy of the
deceased will be continued till do many years. This can be done by introducing new services that
allow to continuously contact with the descendants in terms of greetings or instructions from the
dead person.
CONCLUSION
It had been concluded that profiles of the person who died need to be preserved in order
to protect the digital legacy of the user. It was also been clear that active profiles on the social

networking sites might be converted into memorialized account in which allow the person to
share the memories and thoughts with the profile of deceased person. The study had also created
an understanding about the right to be forgotten and this topic helped us in understanding that the
people who do not exist but their thoughts, photographs and memories are needed to be inspire
the people in the form of memorialization of the account. The essay had also made people aware
about protecting the private information of those who passed away. These had been possible
after preserving the digital legacy of the deceased person.
Furthermore, this research had also provided a clear view about longevity of a headstone
on a grave that might last for many years after the death of an individual. This study had mainly
focused in providing the security and privacy to the information of those who are inviteable
persons. It also made clear that any blog , website or profile of the person who passed away can
be transferable to the another authorised person instead of permanent deletion. After the
complete study of ethics of dead people online it had been also observed that profiles of the dead
people online may effect the monetisation of the Facebook company.

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Online
The ethics of dead people online. 2018. [online].
Availablethrough:<https://www.quora.com/There-are-over-30-million-profiles-of-dead-
people-on-Facebook-and-10-000-more-each-day-At-this-rate-there-will-be-more-profiles-
of-dead-people-in-the-near-future-Will-Facebook-ever-remove-them>