Posted on 12/22/2004 5:07:25 AM PST by wallcrawlr
WIXOM, Mich. -- Offers of help have been pouring in for a Michigan family who is trying to persuade online giant Yahoo! to allow them access to the e-mail account a Marine killed in Iraq.
From lawyers to computer-code crackers, people across the nation have come forward wanting to help the family of 20-year-old Justin M. Ellsworth, who was killed last month during a foot patrol in Iraq.
``Oh, my God. It's been incredible,'' Justin's father John Ellsworth said. ``It's an overwhelming response. ... Things are really moving. I'm very encouraged by it all, but I still have my reservations.''
Yahoo! is standing by its policy of protecting the privacy of its e-mail subscribers, spokeswoman Karen Mahon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Reading the posts, looks like there is no consensus on this issue. I chose the side of the family instead of the company. The Marine is gone and is in no pain, his family is. Yahoo has nothing to gain or lose in this. I view this e-mail issue as no different than any of his other personal effects that are left to the next of kin. A lawyer FReeper has posted the legal hurdles he went thru with AOL in a similar situation. In the end, he won. I hope the family of this Marine does , too. Sure, there may be things in there that he may have wanted to be private for whatever reason. But, I believe his family needs and deserves the access to his e-mails.....
That was a rhetorical question......
I dont buy it...if they are friends they will learn through regular/traditional channels that he has passed on.
How many families do you know that write people and say, "Our son died...".
An account is different from other personal effects because it is an intangible thing. Unless the man printed out the messages and left them with his other things, the messages should remain private.
We don't know the relationship between the man and his family, or how much access he'd want to give them to his personal account. He signed up under a privacy policy that blocks this sort of sharing, and unless he contradicted it himself, we should assume he wanted his privacy respected.
The family may 'need' access to his account in thier own minds, but it's not thier decision.
I just counted. So far, twenty one people (including myself) are clearly against Yahoo and the family violating the son's privacy. Three people, including yourself, appear in favor of abusing his trust. Eight people do not make their view clear, though four of those seem to lean against Yahoo breaking their obligations.
So, of people who have clearly expressed a view one way or the other, 87.5% support protecting the son's privacy and 12.5% support abusing it.
Why stop at Yahoo? Since he was a Marine I'm sure he had an official military e-mail account. Should they see those e-mails also? Most folks have more than one free account so should Yahoo, MSN, AOL etc be forced to do a search for all accounts he may have opened? Maybe he was a Freeper should they have access to that account also? They'll lose big time if this makes it to court.
I just fear that this may be a case of not being careful (as they should be) of what they wish for. Prayers for the family.
I would hope that my family would tell my friends that I died. What other regular/traditional channels are there?
I know that when a friend of mine from New York City died last year while skiing in Salt Lake that his friends went into his email and let all of us know that he died or else I never would have found out.
Conversely I had another friend die 2 years ago but I didn't find out for months until I called his office. Had his friends or family gone into his email and address book they could have told people.
I don't see any nefarious motives behind notifying friends that someone is dead.
I am currently in the process of writing my Will before the year is out. I will make sure that my family has my passwords and permission to access my email. They can also delete the 200 pieces of porn spam I get per day.
True, true, true. Great point. Let his family nose through his sock drawer. Yahoo is doing the right thing by not disclosing the information.
Right on. Soldier or not I don't see why Yahoo should give up on privacy rights. The family want to see what emails this guy was sent?
Most passwords are easy to crack if you know the person. Favorite team, pet, hometown, nickname, birth place...people are not very imaginative. I freaked out some friends by hacking into their accounts. If it's doable you can do it in a few minutes.
I, too, refuse to participate.
In other develpments, some civilian contractors were surprised to receive news that they have been involuntarily extended. Those effected have less than three weeks left in country....
If someone asked me for my password I'd give them a false one and wait to see how long it took for them to tell me it didn't work.. ;)
If this marine had wanted his family to know the contents of his email, he would have CC:'d them. Why stop at electronic mail? Should the family find out about snail mail correspondence their son was carrying on, would they demand that the recipient forward copies to them?
Private correspondence is just that. Had their son wanted them to be in the loop, they would have been.
Moralistic in a way that's critical of everyone except himself, mind you. Doesn't change your point.
I agree. It's like your private notes. I don't see why the family has a "right" to see these. I'm praying he didn't say anything about them that he'll never be able to take back. This is a textbook example of what grieving families do before they have the ability to let go. It won't bring him back. I hope the words they find will bring comfort, and that's all.
If the family gets all of his property including postal mail upon death, they should also get his email.
End of controversy.
BUMP
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