Who inherits a selfie? States seek to fill privacy law gaps

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- When a loved one dies, laws cover how their houses, cars, and other property are passed on to relatives.

But the rules are murkier -- and far more restrictive -- when it comes to pictures on Facebook, emails to friends or relatives and even financial records stored in online cloud accounts.

Google, Facebook and other companies have said a federal privacy law approved decades before digital storage became common prevents them from releasing electronic memories or records unless the account owner grants permission -- even if the person is dead.

Without an estate plan, families must try to crack their loved one's passwords or take the costly step of litigating the matter to access photos and emails -- and some have, with little success. The laws governing how to divide belongings after someone dies have not caught up with the technological advances that have permeated the ways people communicate, but states have begun trying to bridge that gap.

This year, Illinois was one of 19 states that passed similar laws to clarify what internet companies can release after someone dies and when information should remain inaccessible.

"I post quite a bit on Facebook. I post a lot of photos. If something were to happen to me, maybe my wife would like to have access to those photos," said Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, a state legislator from suburban Chicago who sponsored Illinois' measure on the topic.

With the new laws, unless a person expresses otherwise, companies will release basic information from a user, such as the person's email contact list, to help find friends or gather an inventory of a person's assets.

But for survivors to get the actual contents of the emails -- even the subject lines -- or photos and documents stored in a cloud service, people must specify who they want to have their digital belongings.

The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986, doesn't anticipate the release of online information when executing wills. Because probate law typically is left to the states, the laws legislatures are passing effectively could set new rules.