Postmortem privacy and data on Social Media

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K00468
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Library and information science/Humanistic social informatics
• Research Institution: Kanto Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Orita Akiko 関東学院大学, 人間共生学部, 准教授 (20338239)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 湯淺 墾道 情報セキュリティ大学院大学, その他の研究科, 教授 (60389400)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: プライバシー / 死 / 個人情報保護 / デジタル資産 / アイデンティティ / ソーシャルメディア

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We conducted a survey of the current state of the service, the current legal system and user attitudes. First, we examined some services to found that the existence of the account must be informed to after the user's death to follow procedures.As for the legal system, while the Anglo-American legal system is generally negative about the rights of the dead, the continental legal system allowed the rightfulness of the deceased to the certain extent. There is also a movement to make use of the publicity rights framework. Regarding to user attitudes, the survey was conducted among university students in Japan and among people in Japan, the United States, and three countries in France. Results showed differences in intentions depending on their position and usage conditions were identified.

Free Research Field

情報社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

利用者の死亡後のアカウントやデータの扱いは現実的な問題でありながら、多くの利用規約では定められず、また法制度上も明確な規定はないことが明らかになった。また、利用者の意識調査の結果、自分が故人となった場合と遺族となった場合では意向が異なることや、年代や利用状況による違いも見えてきた。これらの成果は、今後現実的に必要とされる利用規約やガイドラインの構築において貢献できると考える。