Germany’s top court ruled Thursday that Facebook must grant a grieving mother access to her dead daughter’s account, in a landmark judgement for how social network data is treated after its owners pass away.
Judges at the Federal Constitutional Court found the daughter’s contract with Facebook was part of her legacy and should be passed on to the mother, giving her full access to the 15-year-old’s account including her posts and private messages,mailonline reports.
‘The contract covering a user account with a social network is transferred to the heirs of the original owner of the account,’ the Karlsruhe-based court ruled.
Those heirs ‘have a claim on the network operator for access to the account including communications data,’ the ruling continued.
In 2016, Apple resisted attempts by the FBI to force it to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of two people who had carried out a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.
But the company was more open to an Italian father who in 2016 asked it to unlock a phone belonging to his child who had died of cancer, allowing him to recover precious memories and photos