Getting Your Facebook Affairs in Order: User Expectations in Post-mortem Profile Management

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In 2015, Facebook launched Legacy Contact to allow account holders to choose someone to manage their postmortem, memorialized profile. This study evaluates the Legacy Contact setup process, and asks how users form and communicate expectations about what an active post-mortem manager’s responsibilities would be. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with adult Facebook account holders in the US who either configured their own settings or were chosen for future delegation by someone else. We found that account holders chose the Facebook Friend they felt closest to, and that selection was often reciprocated. Both accountholders and legacy contacts felt confident that they had communicated (or could communicate) well about the legacy contact’s responsibilities, but their expectations did not align with the actual functionality of the Legacy Contact system. We argue that the misalignment of user expectations and system functionality indicates a significant opportunity to improve the setup process. Our findings indicate that post-mortem management systems require a setup process that is fundamentally different from the quick-clickthrough standards of everyday interaction design. The ramifications of a postmortem manager’s expectations not being met during a time of grief, points to the urgent need for a setup process that prompts thoughtfulness and deliberation, and forms accurate expectations for account holders and future postmortem managers alike.