Emails and death: Legal issues surrounding post-mortem transmission of emails. 2019

Edina Harbinja
Aston Law School, Aston Business School, Aston University , Birmingham , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The paper is a first thorough examination of what happens to one's emails on death. The paper demonstrates that some content of emails can be protected by copyright and transmitted on death accordingly. The paper then analyzes the contractual provisions of the main email providers, Google and Microsoft, in order to determine how these contracts, regulate the transmission of emails on death. The author finds that these provisions complicate the issues of property and transmission of digital assets and do not offer a meaningful control over the assets for their users. The paper adopts a novel focus introduced in the author's earlier research, the idea of post-mortem privacy that is the right to privacy after death. This concept serves as an argument against the default transmission of emails on death without the deceased's consent, whether through the laws of intestacy or by requiring the service providers to provide access to the deceased's emails. Finally, the paper canvasses a solution which combines law and technology. It is argued that much more control should be placed in the hands of emails users. Post-mortem privacy, a potentially contested phenomenon, only accentuates the need to better account for the interests of the deceased, having in mind the volume of personal data and personal nature of emails. Therefore, an in-service solution is promoted, backed up by policy and legislation.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001293 Attitude to Death Conceptual response of the person to the various aspects of death, which are based on individual psychosocial and cultural experience. Attitudes to Death,Death, Attitude to,Death, Attitudes to
D013672 Technology The application of scientific knowledge to practical purposes in any field. It includes methods, techniques, and instrumentation. Industrial Arts,Arts, Industrial
D013795 Thanatology The study of the theory, philosophy, and doctrine of death.
D018907 Privacy The state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed, 1993) Privacy Act,Public Law 93-579,PL 93-579,PL93-579,Act, Privacy,Law 93-579, Public,PL 93 579,PL93 579,Public Law 93 579
D034742 Electronic Mail Messages between computer users via COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS. This feature duplicates most of the features of paper mail, such as forwarding, multiple copies, and attachments of images and other file types, but with a speed advantage. The term also refers to an individual message sent in this way. E-Mail,Email,E Mail,E-Mails,Emails,Mail, Electronic

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