See this article, “Yahoo denies family access to slain soldier’s e-mail,” which was published in the Lansing State Journal but which was picked up by the wire services, too. Essentially, the family of a soldier killed in Iraq is asking Yahoo to release the dead soldier’s email account to the family, but Yahoo is refusing, citing its privacy policies.
I feel for the family. They want to have as much of their now dead son as they can. But it seems to me that Yahoo is actually doing the right thing here. For one thing, there is a contractual agreement, that part everyone skips when they sign up for the free account. For another, it is the dead son’s privacy. I mean, it’s entirely possible that the now deceased son has things in his Yahoo account he didn’t want to share with his family, and it seems to me his privacy wishes ought to be considered.
A tough situation, though.