E-Mail Privacy

An e-mail account can contain sensitive personal information. What happens to this information when the owner of the email account dies? Is an email account part of the estate of the deceased? With almost everyone having an email account, and this being a fairly new means of communication, these are questions that will no doubt be in question in the near future. I will discuss both the utilitarian and deontological considerations in an attempt to determine the “right” thing to do regarding the legal battle involving Justin Ellsworth.

Justin Ellsworth was a marine that was killed in combat. His parents sought possession of his email account after his death, however the email provider (Yahoo) refused due to their contractual obligations to Justin.

The utilitarian consideration is determined by actions that produce the most “happiness” for the greatest number of people. In this particular situation, there are four groups. There are the parents of Justin, there is Yahoo, the company who managed Justins’ email account, there is Justin who is deceased, and there is the general public.

Justin’s parents wanted possession of his e-mail account because they sought to “Know his thoughts and feelings in the last week of his life”.(Bebow) According to Justins father John Ellsworth, he and Justin had agreed to keep a copy of their e-mail correspondence and together make a scrapbook when Justin came home. This would be a way for John to complete that project for his son.

Justin had his e-mail account through Yahoos website. Yahoo specifically has an agreement with its members that state “Any rights to your Yahoo ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death”. (Bebow) Yahoo refused to hand the content of Justin’s account over to his father as the agreement was with Justin-not John.

Justin who is deceased obviously cannot be asked of his opinion. It is very likely that if Justin were to come home, and make the scrapbook with his father, he would likely not include every email he received while he was gone. He would probably include the correspondence between he and his family and friends. Justin who had an agreement with Yahoo made no arrangements to authorize Yahoo to release his account to anyone.

The general public was very concerned about this issue. The privacy of an e-mail account is a very serious matter. Complete strangers were so offended that a message board was started to communicate to the parents of Justin. “Just look at your own e-mail account and ask yourself if you would like to have it exposed to your whole family when you die.” (Bebow) stated a stranger. If Justin’s email account was given to the parents, would it set a precedence for future cases?

The largest number of people being happy in this case is the general public stating they would prefer email accounts stay confidential.

The deontological consideration only takes into account what the “right” thing to do is. It is not black and white in this particular case I think because email is such a new form of communication. Twenty years from now, it may be acceptable for people to think of email as part of someone’s estate-only time will tell.

For obvious reasons, an email account should not be on public display when someone passes away.