Tim
If it wasn’t obvious, when a person dies, many things are left behind. These things could usually consist of family, friends, and sometimes, a Facebook account. The way Facebook has handled the death of a member is to restrict visibility to the deceased member’s profile to only those that were already friends of the person. This way, only the people that truly mattered would be able to relive the person’s status updates and pictures they uploaded.
Starting today, Facebook has changed this policy, and will now keep the profile’s privacy settings to however the user had them before they passed away. If the profile was completely public and all could view, then that’s the way it will stay. It if was heavily locked down, then it will stay that way.
Not only are there changes to how Facebook will handle deaths, but they have also created a special Look Back video feature, which combines pictures that were uploaded to Facebook into a special memorial video for friends to watch.
Starting today, we will maintain the visibility of a person’s content as-is. This will allow people to see memorialized profiles in a manner consistent with the deceased person’s expectations of privacy. We are respecting the choices a person made in life while giving their extended community of family and friends ongoing visibility to the same content they could always see.
Today, we’re also glad to begin offering a way for anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one to see that person’s “Look Back” video. In recognition of our ten-year anniversary, a group of our engineers created personal movies for people using some of the posts and photos they had shared over the years.
To make a Look Back video request through Facebook, you can do so here.
Cherish the ones you love – always.
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