Facebook Working on Filtering Out Virtual Ghosts
Facebook is working on a way to determine its deceased users.
One of the positive aspects about social networking is that users can find old high-school and college buddies. They can keep real-time tabs on family members while communicating with potential employees or customers.
However one of the negative aspects--especially for Facebook users--is that deceased friends and relatives still circulate the network. That could be disturbing when Facebook suggests users to network with its virtual ghosts.
"It kind of freaked me out a bit," said Courtney Purvin. Recently the site suggested that she get back in touch with an old family friend who played piano at her wedding four years ago.
The family friend died back in April 2010.
"It was like he was coming back from the dead," she said.
Although the Facebook database can keep track of its 500 million plus members' birthdays, anniversaries, and friends that haven't been contacted in a while, the site is still having a problem determining when one of the users passes on.
Facebook has acknowledged the "ghosts in the machine," however the company also admitted that the process of automating the task of identifying deceased users remains to be a problem. Currently Facebook has not found a good solution to rectify the situation.
“It’s a very sensitive topic,” said Facebook company spokeswoman Meredith Chin. "And, of course, seeing deceased friends pop up can be painful. And people passing away every day (given the site's overall size), we’re never going to be perfect at catching it."
Currently Facebook does have a way to "memorialize" pages of deceased users, allowing friends and family to pay homage--these pages are removed from search results and pulled out of the "suggested friend" algorithm. The problem is that many users aren't marked as deceased, and Facebook doesn't know how to automatically determine "death."
It's suggested that Facebook implement a tool that allows users to report a death when the deceased appears. Chin also said that Facebook may use software to scan pages for phrases like "rest in peace" or "I miss you"--a Facebook employee would then be dispatched to investigate upon discovery.
“We are testing ways to implement software to address this,” she said. “But we can’t get it wrong. We have to do it correctly.”
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Is there any reason why they don't just delete inactive accounts after say 6 months? Problem solved.
Why don't they just pull the plug on someones account if they're inactive for a period of time and keep settings, information and pictures for a year (or whatever) just in case the user isn't dead.
Not THAT hard..
Yeah. Figure out an algorithm and 4chan will figure out how to exploit it. Also there is no way they will pay x0000$ a year someone to guess is someone alive or not.
Twice a year, have a pop-up asking "Are you still alive?" If this is not answered within X months, they logically must be dead!
Is Facebook going to put up a cemetery right next to FramVille so that people can pay their respects to the dead???
Awesome...I can see app now... it grabs photos of the deceased and puts them into a zombie game. Then it invites the deceased friend's to play.
@ Lord Orion, Funny. lol. But Seriously Speaking, I DONT THINK Inactivity, should be in for it. Becasue I have Friends Who Log In Every Like 3-4 Months, So Really, If They Got 'Deleted' It Would Be Stupid. Something More Like a Suggestion, Because Of Statuses, Like RIP, Or I Miss You, Or W.e Should have someone Take Action, from Facebook and. investigate .
"ghost in the machine" finally somebody is beginning to recognize the little bits of immortality of our digital legacies left on the internet.
I for one have no problem with deceased friends' accounts on social networking sites. I think 6 months is how long the accounts should stay up because people like to leave comments on their page for the first months after their death or grab pictures or whatever. Unfortunately, I have 5 dead friends whose sites are still up, and its nice to be able to grab their pics for memories.
Add a "This person is a zombie" button
How about stop suggesting to get in touch?
simple. Dont create a facebook page...
Oh, thinking what happen if my sweeties write on my wall "I miss you" or Facebook bomb "RIP"
RIP
iRobot (movie) any one?
If someone has not logged in within a period of x days, then they cannot be recommended as a friend. The account doesn't necessarily need to be subject to automatic deletion. Simple enough?
If someone has not logged in within a period of x days, then they cannot be recommended as a friend. The account doesn't necessarily need to be subject to automatic deletion. Simple enough?
Then people will bitch about having their usage tracked knowing when their on and logging and blah blah blah...
Do people throw out all hard copies of pics from deceased friends? Do they never think about them again? No. I too agree in getting rid of the suggestions or reconnect thing. FB is just dehumanizing us anyway so in the end, it won't really matter. We'll just get a funeral invite through the thing and never actually have any face to face contact anymore. Maybe even have a virtual wake through Second Life.
Yeah. Figure out an algorithm and 4chan will figure out how to exploit it. Also there is no way they will pay x0000$ a year someone to guess is someone alive or not.
Ah 4Chan, the boogeyman of the internet. "If you do so-and-so on the internet Little Timmy, the 4Chan is going to come and get you!"
If someone has not logged in within a period of x days, then they cannot be recommended as a friend. The account doesn't necessarily need to be subject to automatic deletion. Simple enough?
This is certainly a logical way of helping prevent such. Obviously this wouldn't be bulletproof as it could still happen within those X amount of days but it does seem like the best and most rational solution.
My wife not too long ago recently found out about a old friend of hers passing away through facebook. She looked this person up and happened to find a public profile dedicated to her friends memory. While this upset my wife I certainly think she doesn't regret finding out.
So I think the reasonable thing to do what precariousgray suggests. However I would like to add that these people should still be search-able and if facebook learns of their passing should list them as deceased.
They could just close Facebook.
Just have a policy for 'Inactive Users'. Inactive Users cannot post, receive posts (without an informational message of inactivity by the poster) or messages, cannot post events, send invites, play FarmVille/FishVille, and their birthdays do not post, but give a privacy option to override this. Under your friends list, display "Inactive Users" link.
Better idea: In the event that someone does not log on in one years time...you send emails to some of their most highly contacted friends...and ask them if their friend is unable to use their account due to death. If you ask respectfully and explain why the site does this, I'm sure users will appreciate it. The other option is for users to set up a sort of "emergency contact" such as a sibling, parent, or cousin who is also on Facebook. After a set period of time, the password may be given to emergency contact. However, you must give users a full disclosure of what "emergency contact" means, what the site will automatically do after one year's time inactivity, etc. You must also be able to NOT name a contact, and instead have your account deleted. Even two years would probably be fine. If I let my account go inactive for more than two years, I would certainly prefer to have it automatically deleted or turned into a memorial page.
There's something about facebook recommending dead people as your friend that is intriguing. Comes to show how far reaching our internet activities have gone yet how linear our controls only are.
Unless someone sends Facebook a death certificate how are they supposed to know that someone is dead? It's not Facebook's responsibility to do background checks on members or constantly monitor public records.
I personally don't like that they are going to be doing this.
My family and friends still write on my decent family and friends facebook, and look through old photos and old post we made to each other. It's not fair that they are removing these. They are all we have left and now facebook is taking that away too.
They should find the next of kin and give them access to download the photos and such, clean up the account and delete it. There might be something worth saving, even if it's just photos. People like to hang on to stuff like that.
Yeah then I can mark my ennemis as dead.
The solution is simple. Friends and relatives could flag someone's account as dead. Then, the system generates an e-mail asking the user to go to his personal details and set "Deceased" to "Yes". Also, where it says "Sex", you should put "No thanks, I'm dead".
Bulletproof.
I'm glad they're doing this I had a friend die within the last year and it seems like he comes up on that suggestions area or on the mutual friends list every time I'm on.
Mark Zuckerberg
R.I.P
I think the scanning for RIP is the best option, but like with anything else it can be subject of abuse by group of pranksters repeatedly writing RIP on the victim.