JP writes: "Why should you lose your rights to privacy when you die?"

You raise a great question here. I've been writing at LiveJournal for nearly 4 years now, and only just recently discovered that my family *will* be given access to my journal if I meet with misfortune – all they have to do is provide a death certificate and my username. Now, I keep that journal locked such that only people on my safe list can read it. There are reasons for that, and it bothers me that the LJ staff will just turn it over once I'm gone.

Messing around with someone's personal effects after they've died is somehwat inevitable (cleaning out clothes closets, etc.), but I think there's somehting vaguely creepy and disrespectful about going through their e-mail and data files.

I agree. It would be fine if someone left a note saying "my family can read my mail after I die." (I wouldn't want my parents to go through my email!)

On this note, I wonder though about "The Diary of Anne Frank", and how it is of historic importance but got published after her death.