Facebook is granting account holders the right to decide what happens to their profile in the event of their death, Digital Spy reports.
The social network is allowing users to nominate a legacy contact to manage their memorial page after their passing, or elect to have their profile deleted.
Facebook's current policy allows friends and family of a deceased user to request to have the account deleted or memorialised, but nobody can log into a memorialised profile.
The new system will allow the legacy contact to access photos and public posts, but private messages will be shielded in the interest of privacy.
If a deceased Facebook user did not name a digital executor, but nominated somebody to do the same job in their will, the social network will honour the request.
According to The Wall Street Journal, US Facebook users will see the new options appear today and other territories will receive them in the near future.
