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Tue 21 Dec, 2004 07:53 am
The family of a Marine killed in Iraq is pleading with Internet giant Yahoo! for access to his e-mail account, which the company says is off-limits under its privacy policy.
Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, 20, was killed by a roadside bomb on Nov. 13 during a foot patrol in Al Anbar province. The family wants the complete e-mail file that Justin maintained, including notes to and from others.
"I want to be able to remember him in his words. I know he thought he was doing what he needed to do. I want to have that for the future," said John Ellsworth, Justin's father. "It's the last thing I have of my son."
But without the account's password, the request has been repeatedly denied. In addition, Yahoo! policy calls for erasing all accounts that are inactive for 90 days. Yahoo! also maintains that all users agree at sign-up that rights to a member's ID or contents within an account terminate upon death.
"While we sympathize with any grieving family, Yahoo! accounts and any contents therein are nontransferable" even after death, said Karen Mahon, a Yahoo! spokeswoman.
Oh.
My.
Of course - he may not have WANTED his family to see email that he had sent to others!
Lord have mercy - if I imagine my parents seeing (from their graves) some of my email exchanges.....well.....I do not think it would have done anyone any good....
and therein lies the dilemma.
dlowan wrote:
Of course - he may not have WANTED his family to see email that he had sent to others!
This was the first thought that came to my mind...
Sounds like that family needs a good hacker. The password can't be that hard to figure out.
Just my perverse opinion but I say the family should let it go by, just let it go by. they already got whatever email's he wanted them to read and the otheres (if any) are really none of their concern.
I agree with dlowan and Dys.
They oughta let it go.
I agree, dys. What the young man wrote to them, is all they need to keep, but I can understand the parents side as well.
I agree with the rest of you. If the young man had wanted his folks to read his E Mail, he would have given them the password.
pain and grieving - tough deals for many
Right, Husker. How sad for them and now they're grasping for this last little bit of him.
Email privacy is an odd problem -- prior to these password-protected accounts, one's letters would be read and saved and cherished by the family.
Who wants to give out their password prior to death? Who cares, afterwards? Who thinks about that when they're 20?
Personal integrity is the most supreme "right" that must exist within a society of man. It is one of the few (perhaps the only) "right" I am willing to die (or kill) for. IMO
hey can you expand on that?
dyslexia wrote:Personal integrity is the most supreme "right" that must exist within a society of man. It is one of the few (perhaps the only) "right" I am willing to die (or kill) for. IMO
Piffka wrote:Right, Husker. How sad for them and now they're grasping for this last little bit of him.
Email privacy is an odd problem -- prior to these password-protected accounts, one's letters would be read and saved and cherished by the family.
Who wants to give out their password prior to death? Who cares, afterwards? Who thinks about that when they're 20?
Twenty year olders in war zones think about it!
In any case, when the military sends personal effects back to family...normally they screen the effects and dispose of items that might cause unnecessary additional grief for survivors.
Allowing the family access to that email may seem innocuous...but it could be a hornet's nest.
could be an interesting topic of itself I suppose but most likely seque into diatribes re "morality". White hats vs black hats and all that related crap.
Perhaps this is an unfair speculation, but isn't it possible that the young man joined the service in part to escape the constant surveillance of his loving father?
Meanwhile, the grieving father knows there is no point in kicking the universe in the shins or taking on the U.S. Government. He's decided Yahoo is a fair target for his anger and frustration.
Yahoo has big shoulders.
father is really bowing to the mother
I agree noddy.
90% of people in thier grief, look for something/someone to blame.
Even if it is something simple.. like email
It gives them something else to focus on aside from the loss they are experiencing.
I can understand, at the time of death, the survivors want to hold on to anything and everything they can of the person that died.
This is out of thier control, and it gives them something to focus on.
They will scream/yell/fight yahoo until they are ready to deal with thier loss.
i dont think it is about the emails really.. I think it is about the distraction they recieve trying to get them.
dyslexia wrote:Personal integrity is the most supreme "right" that must exist within a society of man. It is one of the few (perhaps the only) "right" I am willing to die (or kill) for. IMO
I too am willing to kill
dys to protect his personal integrity.
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