Category Archives: E-mail

Estate Planning for E-Mail Accounts

Ajemian v. Yahoo! Case Update

On March 26, 2018, the United States Supreme Court denied Yahoo!’s Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in the Ajemian v. Yahoo! case. You can read Yahoo!’s Petition and the briefs that were filed on the United States Supreme Court … Continue reading

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Court Holds Personal Representatives May Provide Lawful Consent Under the Stored Communications Act

On October 16, 2017, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts issued its opinion in the Ajemian v. Yahoo! case. With respect to the privacy protections of the federal Stored Communications Act, the court’s opinion states that “[W]e conclude that the … Continue reading

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Video Clip: Family Fights to Access Late Son’s Digital Data

Minnesota’s KSTP-TV Eyewitness News ran a video story on January 20, 2015, by Tom Hauser about the Anderson family who tragically lost their nineteen-year-old son, Jake. Their son’s death was ruled accidental, but the family wants answers about the events … Continue reading

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Google and Microsoft Update Their E-Mail Privacy Policies

Google and Microsoft have both recently updated their policies regarding the privacy of e-mail contents. The updates are about different issues and were initiated in response to different events. Google updated their Terms of Service agreement on April 14, 2014, … Continue reading

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The Digital Death Conundrum: How Federal and State Laws Prevent Fiduciaries from Managing Digital Property

The University of Miami Law Review just published The Digital Death Conundrum: How Federal and State Laws Prevent Fiduciaries from Managing Digital Property (direct PDF link), a new article coauthored by James D. Lamm, Christina L. Kunz, Damien A. Riehl, … Continue reading

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Valuable $50,000 Twitter Account Allegedly Stolen

There was an interesting January 29, 2014, article on CNET written by Don Reisinger describing how a thief/hacker allegedly hijacked an Internet domain name and e-mail account belonging to Naoki Hiroshima and stole his Twitter username. According to Mr. Hiroshima’s … Continue reading

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Thoughts on the Stored Communications Act, Federal Preemption and Supremacy, and State Laws on Fiduciary Access to Digital Property

As of the date of this posting, seven states have recently passed laws and at least eighteen other states are considering new laws granting fiduciary access to an incapacitated or deceased person’s online accounts and other digital property. The Uniform … Continue reading

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Video Clip: What Happens to E-mail, Facebook, and iTunes After You Die?

Minnesota’s KSTP-TV Eyewitness News ran a five-minute video story on May 2, 2013, by Tom Hauser on what happens to your Apple iTunes purchases, e-mail accounts, Facebook account, and other online accounts after you die. I had the pleasure of … Continue reading

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Google Users Can Now Plan Ahead for Incapacity and Death for their Google Data

If you use Google’s Gmail service or one of its other popular services, Google has new user account settings that are helpful for digital estate planning purposes. With these settings, you can direct Google to send your Gmail messages and … Continue reading

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Jim Lamm Presents on Digital Death at 2013 Heckerling Institute

On Thursday, January 17, 2013, I presented a ninety–minute seminar titled “Digital Death: What to Do When Your Client Is Six Feet Under But His Data Is in the Cloud” with Professor Christina L. Kunz and Damien A. Riehl at … Continue reading

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