Finances of deceased person could remain hidden from relatives in e-mail

Estate usually not given access

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Ascertaining the finances of a deceased relative in the age of electronic communications can be legally difficult.
      Survivors usually do not get to read the e-mail communications of a person who has died.
      This is a problem at a time when Finns have more money and other economically important information tied up in online services than ever before.
      E-mail is often the key to the information.
     
The right of the estate to get access to the e-mail of the deceased person was to have been included in the proposed law on communications data protection, or “Lex Nokia”, but the provision was left out of the final version.
     Left in the text was a ban on handing over messages without the agreement of the parties to the communications.
     Officials disagree on whether or not this clause blocks the access of heirs to the communications of the deceased person.
     Companies involved follow the instructions of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA).
     
FICORA interprets the clause to mean that Finnish telecommunications companies are not allowed to disclose the content of e-mails of a deceased person to the estate of that person, unless the person has specifically given permission for such a move before dying, says FICORA lawyer Jarkko Saarimäki.
      Permission can be given in a will, for instance.
     
The Ministry of Transport and Communications says that the right to access electronic messages should be inherited in the same way that access to ordinary mail is.
      The estate of a deceased person is allowed to open regular mail as a way of ascertaining the finances of that person.
      Sanna Helopuro, an official at the ministry, says that the administrators of the estate become the party to the communications, as intended in the law.
     “We feel that a new clause would simply have clarified this practice.”
     The clause was left out of the law, because it was seen to make too much of a distinction between inheritance rights of the real world and the digital realm, Helopuro says.
     The ministry feels that new rules are needed if the situation is not otherwise cleared up.
     
The issue concerns private e-mail services. These include the mail services of Finnish broadband service providers, as well as free webmail services such as Luukku.com and Suomi24.fi.
     The data protection law on working life allows employers to pick out the work-related mails of a deceased employee. However, it does not allow the company to disclose private messages to relatives of the deceased, says Data Protection Ombudsman Reijo Aarnio, who sees a need for more precise rules for online inheritance questions.
      “Service providers could ask, for instance, what a user wants done with his or her messages if death occurs.”
     
It could be easier for heirs to gain access to e-mails on foreign service providers.
      Webmail services such as Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Hotmail are governed by US legislation, which allows the estates of the deceased access to e-mail.
      However, it is not clear what legislation would be applied if the request were made by a Finn, says Max Mickelsson, of Microsoft Finland.
      “It would be nice if these things were cleared up.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  President signs controversial Lex Nokia into law (13.3.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA)

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