Are your online accounts protected by a social media will? - FOX 35 News Orlando

Are your online accounts protected by a social media will?

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When you die, who will control your social media accounts like Facebook or LinkedIn? When you die, who will control your social media accounts like Facebook or LinkedIn?
ATLANTA -

When you die, who will control your social media accounts like Facebook and LinkedIn?  It's something you may not have thought about, but FOX 5 I-Team reporter Dana Fowle says the government wants you to put those instructions in your will.

If you're like many people, you probably have dozens of online accounts.  Some of those sites contain your private information.  So, let's say you upload your private pictures to a photography site. What happens to those photos when you die?

A government blog recommends that you get a social media will and an online executor. Based on your wishes, the executor can then manage your accounts by either leaving them up for a certain length of time, or shutting them down immediately.

But what should you do about your passwords?  The government blog suggests putting your usernames and passwords in the will. However, over the course of time, those passwords change. Getting an online password vault is one solution. Using an online vault means you only need one password, and it's a safe place to store all of your account passwords.

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