Internet afterlife

Lisa Granberg and Elin Tybring run the small online company Webwill from an old industrial building not far from Stockholm's city center. The Web site has a simple design. At the top of the screen, large letters proclaim that this is where you should come to manage your digital identity in the afterlife.

As Granberg explains, the business concept is not complicated either. "You create an account and tell us which online services you use, and what changes we should make after your death," she told Deutsche Welle. "So if you're on Facebook, you give us your login name and password - which we save in encrypted form - along with instructions about whether we should deactivate your account or upload certain information. Once we're informed of your death, we execute your digital will, so to speak."

Proving death to a corporation

Granberg came up with the unusual business idea after she heard about friends who had lost loved ones, but, lacking the login details, couldn't access or delete their Facebook or MySpace profiles. Her friend and business partner Tybring then researched the subject and found that the situation is fairly common.

"It's often difficult for relatives of the deceased to contact the Internet companies and social networks to have a profile deleted," Tybring believes. "Getting hold of the appropriate contact person at Facebook is nearly impossible. That particular platform has been working on its policy on deaths, but the deletion process still involves a number of steps. You need to provide the company with a death certificate before you can post a memorial notice."

As things stand, once a family member gets in touch with the Facebook administrators, the profile of their dead relative is either deleted or switched to a memorial mode that deactivates a number of functions and only allows previously confirmed friends to view and comment on its content.

As long as family members don't have those all-important login codes, that's where it ends. Privacy clauses prevent the company from releasing information that would grant relatives access to an account, which is why Webwill tries to get social networkers to think about how they want their online data managed when they pass away.

Online society

A Webwill promotional video points out that our society is increasingly transferring itself onto the Internet, and interactive platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace already have millions of users. Every month, hundreds of millions of messages, photos and videos are uploaded as people share every detail of their lives with each other.

Anders Larsson, media expert from the University of Uppsala, has a story that shows how far the interaction with the Internet can go. "A young man who played World of Warcraft online was killed in a traffic accident. His fellow players held a funeral for his character in the game itself. They even filmed it as a tribute."

The video of this odd event was posted on Youtube. It shows an open casket on the altar of an immense gothic cathedral, while a number of fantasy characters, representing fellow Warcraft players, file past and pay their respects to the tune of a melancholy pop song.

Larsson says this highlights the significance of the web in contemporary life. "Many of us like to tell ourselves we don't need religious rituals anymore. But these examples of online funerals and memorial pages prove we still have this need. An online memorial service is just like going to the real grave to lay a wreath."

For 20 euros ($27) a year, Webwill will be your executor in the digital world - meaning a World of Warcraft player can pass his or her gaming account on to a friend or relative, for example. Which at least allows his avatar to live on.

Author: Agnes Buehrig (bk)
Editor: Deanne Corbett