SAN FRANCISCO -
A newly-announced privacy setting will soon enable friends and family members to memorialize the online Facebook profiles of loved ones who have passed on, but the new privacy settings prevent a challenge for at least one group of professionals.
According to a blog posted on Facebook.com, the idea for "Memorialized Profiles" has its roots in 2005, when the unnamed best friend of Facebook employee Max Kelly was killed in a bicycling accident.
"As a company, we shared our grief, and for many people it was their first interaction with death," Kelly wrote of his best friend, who was also an employee at Facebook.
The sudden death of the employee prompted Facebook to begin thinking about how to handle the profiles of those who passed on.
"The question soon came up: What do we do about his Facebook profile?" Kelly wrote. "When someone leaves us, they don't leave our memories or our social network. To reflect that reality, we created the idea of "memorialized" profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who've passed."
"Memorializing" a profile works like this: Facebook removes "sensitive information" from a profile, including contact information and status updates. Facebook also locks a profile from public search, blocking anyone from locating the profile of a deceased person with the exception of Facebook users who were already established friends of a person prior to the memorialization.
While sensitive to the wishes and the memory of the departed, the "Memorial" privacy setting poses a problem for journalists working in a multimedia, Web 2.0 environment. Social network websites, like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, have become tools of the trade for locating people of interest -- from suspects and victims of crimes, to people who have passed on from unusual circumstances.
In June 2009, FOX40.com referred to the Facebook profile of Beth Kizere, the first Sacramento fatality of the H1N1 Swine Flu virus, to locate friends and family along with contact information of relatives. Kizere's profile also offered realistic photos of the vibrant 24-year-old woman, much to the contrast of the California DMV photo many other stations initially ran online.
In September 2009, the Facebook profile of suspected murderer Michael "Mykel" Weisz revealed messages of support from close family members and friends. The 23-year-old man stands accused of vehicular homicide after allegedly striking 64-year-old security guard Leroy "Pops" Fisher with his Scion after being ejected from a popular gay nightclub in downtown Sacramento.
"Love ya Mykel, here for you!" friend Cheryl Ehara wrote on Weisz's Facebook profile. Another, Tru Calderon, wrote "May God be with you my friend."
Recently, The Sacramento Bee used Facebook to acquire the first images of Sacramento State University student Quran Jones, who allegedly beat fellow room-mate Scott Hawkins to death with an item resembling a baseball bat. After confirming Jones through photos displayed on SacBee.com, FOX40.com was able to identify Jones in an online video.
Without the unfiltered access to Facebook.com profiles that average, every day users enjoy, journalists are faced with a challenge of acquiring information about a subject. Often, a person's Facebook or MySpace profile offers unique insight into the day-to-day activity and background of said subject. As of now, journalists who have either professional or personal profiles -- whether on their work network or not -- are still subject to the same terms and conditions set forth by Facebook as any other user of the site.
Facebook responds to the concern of journalists by pointing out that memorialized accounts have been available for a few years, but weren't recently publicized until Max Kelly's blog entry thrust the issue into technology and social media blogs.
Another concern about Facebook users impersonating one another has arisen. When a friend or family member puts the request for profile memorialization into motion, Facebook asks for proof of death by way of an obiturary or news article. Once a profile is memorialized, Facebook prevents any person from logging in to the account -- even if the correct username and password are used. Concerns have been raised that people with unscrupulous intentions could link to obituaries and news articles of a person who has deceased to "lock out" users of a profile for a person that shares the same name but is unrelated to the deceased.
"Once an account is flagged by a friend or family member to be memorialized, we review the account to verify that there have no recent posts by the user and all other posts to their wall confirm that they have passed on," Facebook's Chimene Stewart told FOX40.com by e-mail. "Frequently, when someone passes on, friends and family post remembrances or condolences so its usually fairly easy to double-check that the person is, in fact, deceased."
Facebook was ranked as the most-used social networking website, ahead of MySpace, according to a January 2009 survey by Compete.com. It is ranked as the second-most visited website, ahead of Google, according to Alexa.com.
According to a blog posted on Facebook.com, the idea for "Memorialized Profiles" has its roots in 2005, when the unnamed best friend of Facebook employee Max Kelly was killed in a bicycling accident.
"As a company, we shared our grief, and for many people it was their first interaction with death," Kelly wrote of his best friend, who was also an employee at Facebook.
The sudden death of the employee prompted Facebook to begin thinking about how to handle the profiles of those who passed on.
"The question soon came up: What do we do about his Facebook profile?" Kelly wrote. "When someone leaves us, they don't leave our memories or our social network. To reflect that reality, we created the idea of "memorialized" profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who've passed."
"Memorializing" a profile works like this: Facebook removes "sensitive information" from a profile, including contact information and status updates. Facebook also locks a profile from public search, blocking anyone from locating the profile of a deceased person with the exception of Facebook users who were already established friends of a person prior to the memorialization.
While sensitive to the wishes and the memory of the departed, the "Memorial" privacy setting poses a problem for journalists working in a multimedia, Web 2.0 environment. Social network websites, like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, have become tools of the trade for locating people of interest -- from suspects and victims of crimes, to people who have passed on from unusual circumstances.
In June 2009, FOX40.com referred to the Facebook profile of Beth Kizere, the first Sacramento fatality of the H1N1 Swine Flu virus, to locate friends and family along with contact information of relatives. Kizere's profile also offered realistic photos of the vibrant 24-year-old woman, much to the contrast of the California DMV photo many other stations initially ran online.
In September 2009, the Facebook profile of suspected murderer Michael "Mykel" Weisz revealed messages of support from close family members and friends. The 23-year-old man stands accused of vehicular homicide after allegedly striking 64-year-old security guard Leroy "Pops" Fisher with his Scion after being ejected from a popular gay nightclub in downtown Sacramento.
"Love ya Mykel, here for you!" friend Cheryl Ehara wrote on Weisz's Facebook profile. Another, Tru Calderon, wrote "May God be with you my friend."
Recently, The Sacramento Bee used Facebook to acquire the first images of Sacramento State University student Quran Jones, who allegedly beat fellow room-mate Scott Hawkins to death with an item resembling a baseball bat. After confirming Jones through photos displayed on SacBee.com, FOX40.com was able to identify Jones in an online video.
Without the unfiltered access to Facebook.com profiles that average, every day users enjoy, journalists are faced with a challenge of acquiring information about a subject. Often, a person's Facebook or MySpace profile offers unique insight into the day-to-day activity and background of said subject. As of now, journalists who have either professional or personal profiles -- whether on their work network or not -- are still subject to the same terms and conditions set forth by Facebook as any other user of the site.
Facebook responds to the concern of journalists by pointing out that memorialized accounts have been available for a few years, but weren't recently publicized until Max Kelly's blog entry thrust the issue into technology and social media blogs.
Another concern about Facebook users impersonating one another has arisen. When a friend or family member puts the request for profile memorialization into motion, Facebook asks for proof of death by way of an obiturary or news article. Once a profile is memorialized, Facebook prevents any person from logging in to the account -- even if the correct username and password are used. Concerns have been raised that people with unscrupulous intentions could link to obituaries and news articles of a person who has deceased to "lock out" users of a profile for a person that shares the same name but is unrelated to the deceased.
"Once an account is flagged by a friend or family member to be memorialized, we review the account to verify that there have no recent posts by the user and all other posts to their wall confirm that they have passed on," Facebook's Chimene Stewart told FOX40.com by e-mail. "Frequently, when someone passes on, friends and family post remembrances or condolences so its usually fairly easy to double-check that the person is, in fact, deceased."
Facebook was ranked as the most-used social networking website, ahead of MySpace, according to a January 2009 survey by Compete.com. It is ranked as the second-most visited website, ahead of Google, according to Alexa.com.
