Stewarding Online Identities for the Deceased

Given the important role that social network sites play in online bereavement practices, we are exploring issues around inheritance and post-mortem data management of Facebook accounts. We are finding that people focus less on ownership of data, and instead on the duties and potential conflicts associated with maintaining accounts post-mortem.

“Stewardship” is an alternative to inheritance when designing for post-mortem data management practices. Our research on post-mortem data management activities highlights how stewards are accountable and responsible to the deceased and various survivors. However, weighing competing responsibilities is complicated by varied relationships with disparate survivors, as well as the inability to consult with the deceased.

Post-mortem solutions need to account for the needs of stewards in addition to those of the deceased and survivors. Stewardship as a model better accounts for the interpersonal responsibilities that accompany online data than inheritance alone.

Publications

Legacy Contact: Designing and Implementing Post-mortem Stewardship at Facebook Brubaker, Jed R. and Callison-Burch, Vanessa
Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’16
- Abstract
- PDF
- Reference
- BibTeX
- DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858254
Post-mortem profiles on social network sites serve as both an archive of the deceased person’s life and a gathering place for friends and loved ones. Many existing systems utilize inheritance as a model for post-mortem data management. However, the social and networked nature of personal data on social media, as well as the memorializing practices in which friends engage, indicate that other approaches are necessary. In this paper, we articulate the design choices made throughout the development of Legacy Contact, a post-mortem data management solution designed and deployed at Facebook. Building on the duties and responsibilities identified by Brubaker et al., we describe how Legacy Contact was designed to honor last requests, provide information surrounding death, preserve the memory of the deceased, and facilitate memorializing practices. We provide details around the design of the Legacy Contact selection process, the functionality provided to legacy contacts after accounts have been memorialized, and changes made to post-mortem profiles.
Stewarding a Legacy: Responsibilities and Relationships in the Management of Post-mortem Data Brubaker, Jed R. and Dombrowski, Lynn S. and Gilbert, Anita M. and Kusumakaulika, Nafiri and Hayes, Gillian R.
Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ’14
- Abstract
- PDF
- Reference
- BibTeX
- DOI: 10.1145/2556288.2557059
This paper extends research on the giving and inheriting of digital artifacts by examining social network site accounts post-mortem. Given the important role that social network sites play in online bereavement practices, we conducted a series of in-depth qualitative interviews to explore issues around inheritance and post-mortem data management of Facebook accounts. We found that participants focused less on ownership of the data, and instead on the duties and potential conflicts associated with maintaining an account post-mortem. Subsequently, we argue for ’stewardship’ as an alternative to inheritance for framing post-mortem data management practices. Analysis of post-mortem data management activities highlights how stewards are accountable and responsible to the deceased and various survivors. However, weighing competing responsibilities is complicated by varied relationships with disparate survivors, as well as the inability to consult with the deceased. Based on our findings, we claim that post-mortem solutions need to account for the needs of stewards in addition to those of the deceased and survivors. We suggest that a model of stewardship better accounts for the interpersonal responsibilities that accompany online data than inheritance alone.

Beyond the Grave: Facebook as a Site for the Expansion of Death and Mourning Brubaker, Jed R. and Hayes, Gillian R. and Dourish, Paul
The Information Society 29, 3: 152–163

PDF
Reference
BibTeX
DOI: 10.1080/01972243.2013.777300

@article{Brubaker2013,
  address = {San Diego, CA, USA},
  author = {Brubaker, Jed R. and Hayes, Gillian R. and Dourish, Paul},
  doi = {10.1080/01972243.2013.777300},
  issn = {0197-2243},
  journal = {The Information Society},
  keywords = {death-sns,stewardship},
  tags = {death-sns,stewardship},
  month = may,
  number = {3},
  pages = {152--163},
  title = {{Beyond the Grave: Facebook as a Site for the Expansion of Death and Mourning}},
  url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01972243.2013.777300},
  volume = {29},
  year = {2013}
}