Digital accounts after death: a case study of Iranian law
Mirshekari, A1, Ghasemi, R2, Fattahi, A3.
In recent times, as cyberspace is being widely used, virtually
everyone has a digital account. This naturally entails its own legal
issues. Undoubtedly, one of the main issues is what fate awaits the
account and its content upon the account holder’s death? This
issue has been neglected not only by the primary creators of digital
accounts but also by many legal systems in the world, including
Iran. To answer this question, we first need to distinguish between
the account and the information contained therein. The account
belongs to the company that creates and allows the user to only use it.
Hence, upon the death of the account holder, the account will be lost
but the information will remain because it was created by account
holder and thus belongs to him/her. However, does this mean that
the information will be inherited by the user’s heir(s) after his/her
death? Can the user exercise his/her right to transfer account content
to a devisee through a testament? In comparing digital information
with corporeal property, some commentators believe that this kind of
information will be inherited like corporeal property. This is a wrong
deduction because corporeal property is capable of disclosing the
privacy of the owner and third parties much less than in cyberspace. This paper aims to show what happens to a digital account after
its user passes away by examining the subject using the content
analysis method in various legal systems in the world, especially in
Iran through a case study. The information required was collected
from law books, articles, doctrines, case laws, and relevant laws and
regulations of different countries. To protect the privacy interests of
the deceased and others, it is concluded that financially valuable
information published by the account holder before death can be
transferred to his/her successor(s). As a rule, information that may
violate privacy through disclosure should be removed. However,
given that this information may be a valuable source in the future
to know about the present, legislators are suggested to make digital
information available to the public for a long time, which may no
longer lead to the invasion of the decedent’s privacy.
Affiliation:
- University of Tehran, Iran
- University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran, Iran
- Tehran University of Science and Culture, Iran
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