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Yahoo! Denies E-Mail Access to Family of Dead Marine

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

December 22, 2004, 3:46 PM

Yahoo! continued Wednesday to refuse e-mail access to a Michigan father of a Marine killed in Iraq early last month.

The family of Justin Ellsworth, 20, is trying to gain access to the e-mail before the Yahoo! account is erased at the end of next month due to the comapny's policy of deactivating unused accounts after 90 days.

At issue is the fact that the family does not have Justin's password for the account. Yahoo! cites its privacy policy as the reason why they continue to refuse access.

Support is coming in from all over the country, ranging from online petitions to forensic computer efforts offering free help to break into the account, however.

"It's an overwhelming response," John Ellsworth, Justin's father told reporters. "Things are really moving. I'm very encouraged by it all, but I still have my reservations."

According to one television report, the family plans to file a legal injunction shortly to prevent Yahoo! from deactivating the account.

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By Jackle2316

edited Sep 12, 2006 - 3:37 PM

How dare every single one of you that spoke against the fellow Marine. I can tell every single one of you that spoke so lowly of the Marine's family has NEVER been to the suck. I have done my two tours, going on my third soon and by GOD if I died in Iraq and my mother lost my password I'd want her to have the e-mails we shared together. I speak for the fellow Marine, you are all bas****s to say the Law has the right over the Military and it's byright to the family and its request. I wish I never meet a single one of you in person because I'd be hardpressed not to spit on you. The family deserves those e-mails, I guarantee you their not just "dirty" e-mails or roughnecked jokes between buddies. Civilian Accounts, Military Accounts and Bank Accounts should be treated the same be it E-mail or otherwise; let the Family have what the HONORABLE FALLEN BROTHER, A fellow Marine, wishes to share. By GOD it's cruel to do it to the family. I know my post is years late, but if you're reading this then know what that Dead Marine has to say through his friend that lived -- Give our families what they want, and forevermore they deserve it.
Cpl. Millers
Simper Fi.

Score: 0

By tpaman1975

posted Dec 25, 2004 - 10:36 PM

Regardless of what the son gave the father permission wise it does not override the binding agreement he entered into with Yahoo directly. In any court of law, the agreement with the company directly will take precedence.

I don't think accessing the account for scrapbook purposes is reason enough. Not to be disrespectful but when you make one exception it opens the door for others.

I'm sorry for the family but the person that keeps saying.....but its family....that just isn't reason enough. I'm sure a lot of people don't want their family members sifting through their email accounts.

Score: 0

By hardgiant

posted Dec 25, 2004 - 3:12 AM

All the people that sent this guy Email also have the right to privacy and they are still alive.

Also doesn't this family have other items and memories of when this soldier was alive?

It would be sad if all they had was a few emails, I wouldn't consider emails of him talking dirty to his girl approtiate for a mother and father to have.

Score: 0

By darkwolfbc

posted Dec 24, 2004 - 5:48 PM

First off it is a sad thing that thier son has died, but Yahoo has to stick with the privacy policy. What my question is why do his parents need to have access to his account so bad they they are going through all this trouble. Its not their account, its their son's account. Which means the contents of that account does not belong to them. It is his own preson business that if he wanted them to have access to he would have given them the password to it. Opening mail that isnt addressed to you is a felony. So doesnt this kinda the same thing. It doesnt belong to them so they should not be allowed to access it. And having people try to hack into the account is not legal either. I think Yahoo should shut the account down since in their policy it states account will be terminated upon death.

Score: 0

By TC17

posted Dec 23, 2004 - 1:15 PM

Yahoo deactivating accounts within 90 days? That is news to me.

Either something drastically changed or its an outright lie by Yahoo. Yahoo keeps unused accounts active for years. In fact I dare anyone here to even find Yahoo's link to close your account... a link that actually works.

The only one that partially worked was logging onto the United Kingdom Yahoo.com web address. Even then your account may be deactivated, but not actually deleted.

The one link Yahoo had for years (which is buried deep in their cryptic menus), never worked (for their United States accounts). It always came back with an error whenever you tried to cancel your account. And contacting Yahoo for help is totally useless.

Yahoo does not delete accounts so they can keep them so they can entrap their users and help law enforcement.

Score: 0

By yaminii

posted May 15, 2005 - 7:21 AM

plz.......help me my account also deacitaved it's says but i can see my yahoo id was online b'cos i have use another id then i saw in messanger my yahoo id is online plz.....help me is any one hacked?
plz.......help me.....i can enter my account till now i have many my personal, my friends details there...plz.....help me.....

Score: 0

By sucrets

posted Dec 27, 2004 - 9:50 AM

Oddly enough, I had two yahoo accounts that, after Yahoo! announced deactivating accounts, were both deactivated roughly 3-4 months after I last used them. I used one for work when I traveled and I lost some good work-related information sent to that account. Oh well :)

Score: 0

By yohimbe9

edited Dec 22, 2004 - 10:13 PM

Precedence - that's the big problem. Yahoo doesn't want to even open this door. I don't know when it was actually added to the TOS but it does explicitly say "No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability". While I definately feel for the father, I think the law is on Yahoo's side on this one.

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Dec 22, 2004 - 10:12 PM

Get over it. Come one. I mean Yahoo doesn't give info out to anyone. why should the parents of someone who is DEAD get special treatment? Come on it's just e-mail, not a bank account.

Score: 0

By Pipewrench

posted Dec 22, 2004 - 9:32 PM

Yahoo should let the parents have access. I would let my mom and dad read my email anytime (and I'm over 30). I side with the family. Not like they're trying to do anything bad. Good grief....

Score: 0

By sucrets

posted Dec 30, 2004 - 8:40 AM

It appears that most if not all of us side with the family emotionally. Like your subject says, Its Family.

The concern is that once you do, legally it becomes precedence and Yahoo has to start allowing it for everybody and I am willing to go out on a limb here and say that the majority of yahoo members would not want anyone to have access to their email.

I would suggest that if you or anyone sharing your openness with your online activity would like your family to have access to your emails, then give them access now or put it into a Will. Don't try letting the law set precedence against Yahoo.

Score: 0

By arossetti

posted Dec 22, 2004 - 10:02 PM

Yahoo's terms of service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ clearly state:

No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! I.D. or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.

Second, it's not just the privacy of the Marine in question, but also of others who may have sent or received e-mail from the individual. Also, once that privacy veil is broken in one case, courts will spread that to other scenarios as well, eroding any illusion of a private e-mail account.

Further, with respect to the "safe deposit" or "bank account" argument, it just doesn't hold water. Ownership of financial and real estate assets is passed to the heirs through the executor. Those assets, often a matter of public record, are homogenous. My $1 is the same as your $1. There's nothing about my $1 that makes it private. It's a whole different ball of wax. Even in that case, the executor isn't privy to say the full medical records of the deceased. Perhaps a surviving spouse could make some claim, but a parent, child, or other relative certainly has no claim unless there is a legal reason to have them opened in court, and that often has several restrictions placed on it. They don't just throw them open to the world.

Score: 0

By dwarthan

posted Dec 23, 2004 - 1:23 PM

It's family!!!!!!

Score: 0

By dammit_I_changed

posted Dec 22, 2004 - 5:20 PM

1st of all I wish to say sorry to the family involded in this case for the loss of there loved one.

Agree. I agree that yahoo should not disclose peoples infomation without there aprovment.
And UK law does infact state that Yahoo would break the law to do so. (Data Protect Act of 1984)

DISAGREE. BUT I do also think that the person in quetion family should be seen as having legal right to see there family members information unless there is a will with states other wise, as the law (again in the UK) says that the next of kin unless pre stated will be the closes relation to the person in question.

Score: 1

By cPingN

edited Dec 22, 2004 - 6:18 PM

First of all - since when does yahoo delete accounts? I say that's BS, or the numerous dead accounts that I would like to use would be available by now.
Second - why do they want to read his email? What kind of sht is that? Just cuz he's dead doesn't mean it wasn't private. Give they poor guy a respectible funeral and move on. Peeping toms.

LOL

Score: 0

By Esquire

edited Dec 22, 2004 - 10:23 PM

They do delete all email within the account when they deactivate one, which is what is going to happen.

This case is kinda interesting. There is a legal question on whether the estate and the executor of the estate of a deceased person has the right to access private data such as email without specific instructions or provisions in the will, regardless of any prior agreement by the deceased, i.e., do his/her email become the property of the estate after a person dies? Like most people, I think yes, but Yahoo thinks otherwise. Not quite the same as money in the bank in nature since money has no privacy issue with anyone.

It will be interesting to see which side the court favours.

Score: 0

By Jm98224

posted Dec 22, 2004 - 7:48 PM

The father of this marine was on "The Abrams Report" on MSNBC last night. He has written authority from his son giving his father permission to go into the account if he were to die.

That must have been a very difficult email to write. The only question I have is why didn't the son give the father the password and trust that his father not go into the account?

Anyway, the father wants to go into the account so that he can retrieve all the letters that he has sent to people so that he can add them to the scrap book that they've been keeping of all the letters and things that the son did while he was in the military.

Now, yes, the son signed a privacy policy when registering for the account... BUT, Yahoo! should realize that the father has power of attorney over the sons possessions. The email account belongs to the son, but the father is acting on his sons behalf to get into the account. Banks have privacy policies too... how would you guys like to have the bank say that because a bank account or safe deposit isn't in your name, even with power of attorney, you can't get into the account to get the money? It's the same basic idea.

Score: 0

By Bugs4HJ

posted Dec 22, 2004 - 10:36 PM

Yahoo could sends this family all the names (e-mail accounts) from his on-line addressbook, if any.

This might help them to contact these people with the question to send them their e-mail conversations, when they like.

I wonder what OS/Browser and e-mail client he used because that could help them, when all else fails :-)

Score: 0

By Joffi

posted Dec 23, 2004 - 5:07 AM

While initial reaction to this would be along the lines of 'how callous can Yahoo be?', the privacy of those living overrides that reaction.

We live in a different world than that of even 10 years ago. Part of maintaining a will, and of a servicemember's predeployment actions (power of attorney, etc), should be to safeguard usernames and passwords for just such a need.

When was the last time you made a hardcopy backup of your online accounts?

Score: 0

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