Nobody knows their exact date of death, as we invest time and money online storing digital data you should write a will including details on how to access your online account IDs and passwords alongside any offline financial bequeaths.
There are dozens of free services offered by third party companies, blogs, social networks, photo sharing, etc, nobody ever thinks about what will happen to that when you die, name in your will what social networks you belong to as this sometimes has sentimental value for family members, they might also have monetary value, email addresses used to recover a password could open the door to a Paypal or Alertpay account.
Hotmail: If you provide a death certificate and proof of power of attorney with a photocopy of your Government issued ID, Hotmail allows relatives to order a CD with all of the messages in the deceased user’s account, the email password account will not be provided.
Gmail: To get a copy of all of the messages in the user’s account you will need a death certificate, proof of power of attorney, photocopy of you Government issued ID and a copy of an e-mail the deceased has sent to the person making the request.
Yahoo Mail: Yahoo’s policy states that they will not grant access to a deceased users’ accounts unless there is a court order from a judge but the deceased user’s next of kin can ask for the account to be closed emailing them the death certificate.
Facebook: It will follow a family’s wishes to take down a deceased user’s profile or keep it in a memorial state removing status updates and only allowing those whom he/she had befriended to view the profile and post comments on it.
Facebook deceased form: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=deceased
Flickr: If the account is open to the public Flickr will keep it up, any photos marked private will remain that way and family or friends will not be allowed to access them.
Many companies do not have a policy for when someone dies, it is always best that you always write in your will details of your valuable online assets, for example, if you have an online Casino account with money inside, or a Paypal account make sure your relatives know about it and they will be able to access the funds when you pass away.
To find more information about what requirements companies ask to access an online account of someone who has died visit the site below.