Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents Have Been Given Access to His Email?

Module 1 - Case

Normative Ethics and the Right to Privacy

Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents have been given access to his email?

When a person signs up with a web service, whether it is Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or whomever, they checked the box that state they have read, understand and agrees to the policies of that company. I would guess that probably 99 percent of those have never read a full policy let alone more than the first 5 or 6 lines. Technology to include email, has taken over several forms of communication that was once only seen in the movies or thought was too farfetched to ever materialize. In Yahoo’s policy there is a section that pertains to deaths,….No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted. It also has a Statute of Limitations clause where… You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Yahoo! Services or the TOS must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/)

AOL and Hotmail have policies that allow access to emails to the next of kin in the case of death, treating them more like paper letters. (David Shaper, NPR news, Weekend Edition Sunday, 24 April 2005)

Deontological theory states that people should adhere to their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma. Yahoo had the duty and obligation to refuse the release Justin’s email history. What were some of the consequences of not releasing the emails? I feel that one consequence was some negative publicity in the media. They didn’t break their duty to protect the customer’s privacy or their obligation to uphold the rule of...