Yahoo cites privacy policy in refusing to provide it

WIXOM, Mich. - Offers of help have been pouring in for a Michigan family who is trying to persuade online giant Yahoo to allow them access to the e-mail account of a Marine killed in Iraq.

From lawyers to computer-code crackers, people across the nation have come forward wanting to help the family of 20-year-old Justin M. Ellsworth, who was killed last month during a foot patrol in Iraq.

“Oh, my God. It’s been incredible,” Justin’s father John Ellsworth said. “It’s an overwhelming response. ... Things are really moving. I’m very encouraged by it all, but I still have my reservations.”

Yahoo is standing by its policy of protecting the privacy of its e-mail subscribers, spokeswoman Karen Mahon said.

One man started an online petition Tuesday to pressure Yahoo to allow access to the account. Lawyers have offered free legal services and other people have offered money to help the family pay costs they might incur. Two computer forensic examiners have offered to crack the mystery of the e-mail password for free.

The policy of Yahoo is to erase the entire account after it has been idle for 90 days. It’s not known when Ellsworth last used the account. He died Nov. 3, meaning the account would be erased on Feb. 1 at the latest.

(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6745699/)

I don't think they should have access to the account. I certainly wouldn't want my family snooping around my email accounts when I die. Who he talks to and what he talks about is is business. What are they hoping to find, anyway? Secret Iraqi documents?

This is a tricky one since the reason an account is private is to be personal to the user. He might not have wanted his mother reading his email (I wouldn't :D )! Then again, the family may want to know their son's last correspondances for emotional reasons or whatever. Yahoo is probably correct though in sticking to their policies.

<font color="cyan">Tricky one, but I believe access would be granted.

He's not gonna care anymore if they read it, and if they read something they dont like/ didnt want to know, it's their fault for snooping!</font>

I don't see access being granted by anything other than a court order. Yahoo should, however, freeze the account and prevent it being deleted while the exact logistics are being worked out. Having that get blown away in the middle of this will *not* be good for business...

I suspect this is a situation that no one ever really thought about. Should you have a process for transferring access to your accounts after your passing? True, he doesn't care any more (sadly), but aside from his family's own grief, what if there are friends in there who don't know that he has died? Those emails might be the link to letting them know. They might be the link to a fiancee that wasn't talked about, a grandchild who's scheduled to be born soon... the possibilities are endless, and there are some things that one might want to let others know about after your death.

I *suspect* that Yahoo will have a policy addendum soon, letting you decide if you want the executor of your estate to have access to your email account (or something like that). That will protect them from this happening in the future.

'Tis truly sad that we're in this discussion, though...

This is going to *have* to go to court. But it will depend, I'm sure, on why the family is wanting access to his email account.

Personally, I think they should have access to it. Or at least whoever is the heir to his estate should be allowed access.

Think about it...what's the difference in the family finding a shoebox full of letters under his bed? They might be all fine and good...just correspondence between him and his friends. Or it could be a box full of love letters and they find out he was cheating on his wife (assuming he has a wife).

This should be no different.

My mother had access to my father's emails and she used his address book there to notify all his friends of his passing. Otherwise, there would have been a great number of people who would not have found out he died and would want to know.

But either way, this guy's email account is still his "property" and should be turned over to the surviving family just as anything the military has of his personal belongings will be turned over to them; just as anything in his home is now theirs.