[seacapn]

Privacy is not a 'red herring' here. Someone's private email account can contain any number of things, from transaction records to personal correspondance to other people that have nothing to do with someone's family. There could be items as varied as love letters, complaints, letters to high school buddies, transaction records, or anything else. I understand the family's desire to search for a better understanding of their son. But it was always his decision to grant that access. This isn't like a pornography ring or some sort of secretive criminal activity hiding behind the cloak of privacy. There is no wrongdoing here. The man had an account, and it was his. When you sign up for the account, the privacy policy doesn't say anything about losing that privacy upon death. You have to answer the question - what if he didn't want his private messages exposed to his family? Who are we to assume he did? Who is Yahoo to do it? Who, even, is his family?

[codercpc]

I understand the privacy issues, but I think that ceases when the person dies. In this case, the Army will give his parents all of his snail mail letters that he had in his possession, so why is email any different? Also, if they are his heirs and executors (which it sounds like they are), they are entitled by law to his medical records. What's more private than that?