Last week, in conjunction with its latest redesign, Facebook released “suggestions for helping friends,” a feature that aims to get you to assist your friends that don’t appear to be actively using the site and “reconnect” you with old contacts.
One unfortunate side effect of the feature: it started recommending those you’d rather not connect with, and in some cases, deceased friends.
As we noted, it’s not really Facebook’s fault – they can’t be expected to know when friends die, or who you might have dated before the days of Facebook (
) relationship status. Nonetheless, the social network does have a way of dealing with the “dead friend” issue, that they reminded users of in a blog post this morning. Facebook writes:
“We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it’s important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized … By memorializing the account of someone who has passed away, people will no longer see that person appear in their Suggestions.
When an account is memorialized, we also set privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. We try to protect the deceased’s privacy by removing sensitive information such as contact information and status updates. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into it in the future, while still enabling friends and family to leave posts on the profile Wall in remembrance.”
The bottom line: if you see a deceased friend on Facebook, contact the company to have the profile memorialized, which will eliminate this situation from presenting itself in the future.
