Facebook Bereavement Policy Changed For Dead Users' Pages

Facebook is changing how it deals with the profiles of social network users who die, memorializing their timelines while also allowing family and friends to request to see their custom-curated Look Back videos. The policy changes come after a campaign by one father to see his son's Look Back video, which he was unable to access as the son had passed away unexpectedly.

Now, Facebook says, friends or family can make a request to see the video, though it comes with some limitations. Key of those is the fact that it will still be kept private: "if we are able to send you the movie, it is a link that is unique to you and can't be shared" Facebook says.

Meanwhile, there are changes to how Facebook handles the profile pages of the deceased. Previously, when Facebook was notified that a user had died, their profile was memorialized and its visibility restricted to friends-only; as a result, anybody else would not be able to see either the account or anything on it.

The new system will maintain a Facebook page of the deceased under their existing privacy settings, according to however the individual had set things up before they died.

"We are respecting the choices a person made in life while giving their extended community of family and friends ongoing visibility to the same content they could always see" Facebook says of the change.

According to the social network, the new features are just the start of a change in how Facebook will be handling the profiles of those who have died.