Yahoo To Open Up Killed Soldier's Email Account
from the something-of-a-resolution dept
Back in December there was a big controversy over whether or not Yahoo should give a family access to a Yahoo email account used by their son, who had been killed in action in Iraq. The arguments on both sides were persuasive -- from those who thought it was a violation of the soldier's privacy to those who felt that the situation was no different than with a collection of paper letters that would get passed on to next of kin. In this case, however, there was a time limit over the fight, because Yahoo deletes accounts that haven't been used for four months. Today Yahoo is saying that they're not deleting the account and that they're working with the father to reach a "mutually agreeable resolution." Unfortunately, it's not clear at all what that mutually agreeable resolution is -- or whether or not others will ever find out about it, should similar situations occur.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
