Legacy contacts will be able to manage particular aspects of the deceased person’s account, like the profile picture

Feb 12, 2015 12:57 GMT  ·  By

Digital legacy is nothing if not controversial, but Facebook doesn’t want to leave any stones unturned. Including those on graves. After much debate, the social network is finally flipping on the switch to Legacy Contacts, a feature that lets anyone designate an heir of-sorts to their account.

Talk of a potential option to allow someone to inherit your account began about a year ago when some people demanded Facebook to unfreeze digital content belonging to their deceased loved ones.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally promised one customer - who had demanded Facebook to restore a deleted video of his deceased son - that he was working up a solution for those in his situation.

What a legacy contact can and can’t do

Available starting today for US customers and later on for other areas on the globe, Facebook legacy contacts will be able to edit only portions of the memorialized profile page.

The social networking giant clarifies that, “A legacy contact is someone you choose to manage your account after you pass away. They’ll be able to do things like pin a post on your Timeline, respond to new friend requests, and update your profile picture. They won’t post as you or see your messages.”

Legacy contacts will not be able to edit what has already been posted by you, and they can’t delete the account either. So make sure you don’t leave anything too embarrassing behind. They can also be allowed to download an archive of all your posts and photos, but not the messages.

You can change your legacy contact at any time, but they themselves can’t pass on the responsibility to someone else if they don’t feel like managing the account anymore. It’s also worth noting that Legacy Contacts is optional. If you have a strong suspicion that Facebook is somehow making the first steps towards transcending all of us into a digital state, you can just ignore this option.

Jokes aside, if you leave the option empty, Facebook will simply freeze your account when it finds out you’ve passed away, and it will also stop showing advertisements on your account. You can find the option in the Settings pane, under Security.

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