One of the original inspirations for WhenILeave.com
…was a story about a family who couldn’t access the email of a dead marine back in 2004. The story reads:
Yahoo! continued Wednesday to refuse e-mail access to a Michigan father of a Marine killed in Iraq early last month.
The family of Justin Ellsworth, 20, is trying to gain access to the e-mail before the Yahoo! account is erased at the end of next month due to the company’s policy of deactivating unused accounts after 90 days.
At issue is the fact that the family does not have Justin’s password for the account. Yahoo! cites its privacy policy as the reason why they continue to refuse access.Support is coming in from all over the country, ranging from online petitions to forensic computer efforts offering free help to break into the account, however.
“It’s an overwhelming response,” John Ellsworth, Justin’s father told reporters. “Things are really moving. I’m very encouraged by it all, but I still have my reservations.”
According to one television report, the family plans to file a legal injunction shortly to prevent Yahoo! from deactivating the account.
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We understand some of the protections that Yahoo is claiming, but at the same time, what if Justin had given the rights to his account to his family? What if he was able to send messages that he was hoping to send before he died? Well, WhenILeave.com will aim to do that.