I agree wholeheartedly.
On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:05:55 -0500, Mary Landesman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While I feel great compassion for the deceased Marine's father, I do not > believe that grief should override security, privacy, terms of service, and > good judgement. Any email Justin Ellsworth wished his father to have could > reasonably be expected to have been sent to his father prior to Justin's > death - by Justin, of course. Any email destined for other persons is not - > nor should it ever be - the property of anyone other than Justin and the > person to whom the email was sent. > > If Justin wanted his father to inherit his email account, he would/should > have provided his dad with the logon info. > > Excerpted from Yahoo's ToS agreement: > -------------------- > 21. NO THIRD PARTY BENEFICIARIES > > You agree that, except as otherwise expressly provided in this TOS, there > shall be no third party beneficiaries to this Agreement. > -------------------- > > And under item 25 (General Information): > > -------------------- > No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! > account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! I.D. or contents > within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a > death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein > permanently deleted. > -------------------- > > As a Yahoo member, I would expect these terms to be enforced. > > It is tragic that a father lost his son. It is understandable that the > father wishes to gain access to every word his son ever typed. But, no > matter how cold it may seem, just because it is understandable doesn't make > it right. > > Now, if there were reason to believe that a crime had been committed and > that evidence lies in the email, that's a different story. In such a case, I > believe the email should be turned over to the authorities. But absent legal > need, turning over email to a grieving parent/spouse/child is a dangerous > and undesirable precedent. > > Yahoo should be applauded for protecting the privacy of its members. > Frankly, I am shocked that many members of this particular list seem to feel > otherwise. As it stands, Yahoo's security policy suits me to a -T-. > > -- Mary > > _______________________________________________ > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. > Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html > _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
