Saint Peters Blog – Florida leads iAWFUL list with bill to end privacy rights after death
NetChoice – a trade association of online businesses and consumers – today announced its latest Internet Advocates Watchlist of Ugly Laws (iAWFUL) list.
iAWFUL features legislation from across the nation that seeks to limit online competition, innovation, and customer choice.
This year, Florida tops the iAWFUL list by chipping away at privacy rights with FL HB313/SB102, currently in the Senate Rules Committee.
Known as the “Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act,” the measure, filed in the Senate by Port Orange Republican Dorothy Hukill, offers what NetChoice calls “a unique ability” to take away a person’s personal privacy after they die.
Supported by estate attorneys, the act allows access and control of digital assets to the designated representative of the estate. Authorized individuals can then obtain necessary info so they can handle the deceased’s final affairs. It seeks to determine what happens to online accounts, messages, and photos after you die.
If a person does not provide permission beforehand, an estate manager gets access to open up online accounts — approved or not.
That is not what Americans want, according to a recent NetChoice poll.
More than 70 percent of Americans say that private online communications and photos should remain private after they die – unless there is prior consent for access by others, such as family and relatives.
Another 70 percent of respondents say any dispute should fall on the side of privacy, particularly when there is no documented preference about how to handle private communications and photos.
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