Facebook now lets you appoint a legacy contact, which lets this person update, and in some ways manage, your account should you pass away.

If someone chooses, they may give their legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information they shared on Facebook. Other settings will remain the same as before the account was memorialized. The legacy contact will not be able to log in as the person who passed away or see that person’s private messages.

Alternatively, people can let us know if they’d prefer to have their Facebook account permanently deleted after death.

Where our online accounts end up after we’re dead is a serious problem that most people haven’t really come to terms with yet. Reality will make sure of that, in its own abrupt way.