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Did you know that, according to estimates made at the end of 2011, as much as 25% of the accounts on social networking websites belonged to users who were deceased? That number is much bigger today.

When a person dies, their online or social identity can be easily taken over by sophisticated hackers who will either use it maliciously or make an ill-informed post that becomes perceived as a hurtful or a humiliating post from the late individual.

We live in a time where social media is used for almost everything, travel agencies and other online platforms use social media to verify your identity. So, it is no wonder we have almost lost over 2 million people’s identity due to forgetting their password or someone stealing their passwords and logging into their account.

As technology advances, the internet is only continuing to grow larger; therefore, more opportunities for malicious activities will arise. Social media sites create billions of dollars by selling personal information to millions of third parties without you even knowing it.

Creating a new social profile with someone's name and personal information can lead to fraud, identity theft or false postings sensitive information that can cause harm to the living relatives and friends of the deceased

There are many reasons to delete and protect your deceased social media and online identity. The first one is obvious - recent death is a tragedy and can cause unnecessary harm to their online presence as well. Continuing to receive birthday reminders and similar notifications on social media after death will only bring sorrow to friends, family members and loved ones even further. Sometimes emotions can be triggered due to people leaving inappropriate comments.

Even after death, there are still people out there who will try to interact with them, whether it be by liking a picture or making memes of their last post. People are also going to see it and wonder why they have not commented yet.

Another reason to delete the account of a deceased person is the risk of identity theft. What happens in case the deceased social media account contains any information which could easily be used by someone with ill intentions? What will happen if someone has access to a social media account that contains some of their life's secrets?

Social media platforms such as Facebook®, Instagram®, LinkedIn® offer you the option to delete or memorize an account. Others only offer account deletion.

If you want to keep the memories of your loved one alive, there is an option to memorize their social media account. This will not only protect their accounts from malicious acts, but also give you a chance to create a memorial landing page online. Friends already connected to the deceased social media platform can send condolences to your loved one’s account. This is similar to the days of having to print out the letters on paper, physically sign the letters and then mail them to the recipient.

In most cases, people choose account deletion; the account is completely gone and at the same time protected (from a data breach) from being sold or recycled online.

While this is a difficult job, it is important to avoid unwanted activity on the account in the future.

Peaceful Plan can do this on your behalf, our service will get rid of a deceased loved one's social media accounts for them, legally and permanently. This will protect their information from future malicious activities and online emotional discomfort.