Custom «Email from beyond the Grave» Essay Paper Sample

When considering the question “Should the Justin Ellsworth’s Parents have been given access to his emails?” The moral and ethical considerations first must be considered, the privacy of the deceased and then the practical business considerations of Yahoo’s policies.

First of all, this has really made me think very hard on a personal level weather it was the correct thing to do for the courts to allow Mr. Ellsworth’s Parents access to such potentially damaging information. Take my grandfather as an example; I remember him as a kindly man who could do no wrong, who loved his grandchildren and wife, devoted. However, I recently found out from my mother that he frequently cheated on my grandmother. If I were to have found this out as a teenager, it would have clouded the memories that I have of him. As an adult, I can reconcile this, but it was still a shock when my mother told me of his behaviors.

The courts, by ruling that the family was able to obtain the e-mails. Set a precedent that could have devastating effects upon future privacy issues not only for soldiers in the field, but also civilians in society. Now, not only will soldiers have to worry about dying but they will have to be concerned with what they write or type in an e-mail in strict privacy. Many times people express themselves privately about the situations they're in, the people they work around or even the ethnic groups that they protect that are not meant to be seen by anyone else other than the person those e-mails were sent to, in a similar way that a diary is not supposed to be read except with the express permission from the individual doing the writing.

What a horror such a thought would be for a soldier or any person, for that matter, to realize upon their passing away that something they might've written in an e-mail that was not very complimentary or could be scandalous to their family, or that might be hurtful to those that they love might be read by the wrong person. It could even be merely an embarrassment that someone might not want their family to know about, some friendship, an activity or thoughts and feelings. Sometime words are better left unsaid.

I believe that Yahoo acted correctly by the denying the families formal request and not allowing them to view the e-mails of the deceased. Yahoo's practice of treating users e-mails as private and confidential is the correct policy.