Regulations for computerised data on people who have died

18.7.2012

Question for written answer E-007232/2012
to the Commission
Rule 117
Justas Vincas Paleckis (S&D)

There are currently differing views in the European Union about what to do with an individual’s profiles, accounts, electronic mailboxes and other online data after his or her death. Most experts are agreed that this is an area that ought to be regulated and that all content holders ought to be required to handle such profiles in the same way so that no automated systems can ask persons who are deceased to become ‘friends’ and so that families are not required to take such matters to the courts, as some have had to do. The question of what happens to our digital identities, or those of our friends, after death is not yet resolved, and statistics indicate that, globally, three people who are Facebook users die every minute.

1. Is the Commission considering this specific problem?

2. Does it intend to take the initiative and suggest a system of rules for dealing with digital data on people who have died?

OJ C 220 E, 01/08/2013