Yahoo Ending strives to make a death easier, digitally

Yahoo Ending strives to make a death easier, digitally
(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

When it comes to dealing with a person's online identity after they die, things are still murky — there's no right answer about turning Facebook pages into memorials or outright deleting a Twitter account. Yahoo Japan is hoping to make things more clear with its new offering, Yahoo Ending.

The service will deactivate accounts upon death, and can delete documents, videos, and photos from online storage accounts. If the person used Yahoo Wallet for subscriptions, those can also be canceled. "Yahoo Japan's job has been to solve social problems through the power of the internet and to provide services from the cradle to grave," spokeswoman Megumi Nakashima told The Washington Post. "We had services for the cradle part but not the grave part."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.