Reading an article recently, I learned that a young marine by the name of Justin Ellsworth was killed in the line of duty. His parent wanted access to all of his belongings, including his email information. Yahoo, as the email provider, denied the family access to his emails due to its privacy policy that states that its accounts are nontransferable and that, "rights to the Yahoo! I.D. and contents within the account terminate upon death." "Destroying the data once the contract ends simplifies life for Internet service providers (ISPs)," says Mr. Chappell. The family then too Yahoo to court. The judge granted the family access to Justin's emails, and Yahoo had to hand them over. John Ellsworth, Justin's father, learned that there were more than 10,000 pages of email messages and photographs on the disc (Chambers).
             I, for one, am not in total agreement with either the judge's or yahoo's decision. Nor am I in total agreement with the family gaining access to Justin's emails. People worldwide value the fact that their emails are private. This is why we use passwords to protect the privacy of our email accounts as account holders, only allowing access to the people we want to see the emails. Furthermore, if the emails did not relate to the cause of Justin's death, then what was the purpose of the parents' request for the emails? Yahoo states in their privacy policy that its accounts are nontransferable. If this is correct, then no one should have access to his account without his permission. If Justin wanted his family to have access, it seems reasonable that he would have granted them access by having a will in place.
             I think that Ellsworth's parents should have been granted access if the cause of his death was unknown, but it clearly was not. I do feel that email providers and the court should have certain situations that will allow the providers to alter their policies, however. There should be s...