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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with

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Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polett,

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Speaker 1: and I'm the tech editor here at how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot Com. Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior

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Speaker 1: writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So, uh you like pumpkins?

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Speaker 1: I do like pumpkins, like pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pancakes.

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Speaker 1: I like pumpkin cookies, like those pumpkin lattees that you

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Speaker 1: can get over at the Starbucks. I like pumpkin seeds

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Speaker 1: have been roasted for a long time. And you know

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Speaker 1: what I really like was that chunkin pumpkins. I was

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Speaker 1: gonna say, if you're gonna do that, you know, I

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Speaker 1: have all those things you gotta you have to bust

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Speaker 1: some pumpkins. Yeah, and you know what, there's no more

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Speaker 1: effective way than busting a pumpkin than by propelling it

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Speaker 1: several hundred feet into a field. You know, I I

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Speaker 1: kind of doubt that, but it's nowhere near as much

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Speaker 1: fun as doing it. It's definitely the one of the

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Speaker 1: more spectacular ways to get at pumpkin enterds. Well, if

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Speaker 1: you're going to do that, then you should probably tune

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Speaker 1: in on the Science Channel in November twenty six for

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Speaker 1: the Road to Punkin Chunkin and then at nine o'clock

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Speaker 1: Punkin Chunkin. Yes, eight and nine o'clock. Those are when

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Speaker 1: those shows come on. You get to see all how

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Speaker 1: all these these folks put together various pumpkin propelling devices,

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Speaker 1: so everything from catapults to trebuches, two cannons to there's

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Speaker 1: a centrifugal one where it has to make a full

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Speaker 1: rotation before it can release the pumpkin. Release the pumpkin.

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Speaker 1: I like to pretend like there's some sort of besieging

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Speaker 1: army that is being pelted by pumpkins. That would be fun.

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Speaker 1: I would definitely turn around and run if I I

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Speaker 1: saw pumpkins flying at me at high lost. Yeah, no, kitten,

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Speaker 1: But yeah, you guys should check that out. Yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: move on to our topic of discuss ship. Yes, today

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Speaker 1: it's a little bit more somber. Although in the past

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Speaker 1: we've discussed somber stuff, we've been accused of being a

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Speaker 1: little too somber. So we're gonna be goofy, what happens

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Speaker 1: after you die and you've got all these social networks? Um?

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Speaker 1: So yeah, No, this is actually a question that's that's

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Speaker 1: getting some traction. Uh, what's a good question because because

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Speaker 1: we didn't have to worry about this stuff until recently, right,

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Speaker 1: more and more of us are getting involved in having

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Speaker 1: some sort of online presence on a social network like

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Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter, my Space or whatever, um even flicker

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Speaker 1: things like that. And as we do that, we have

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Speaker 1: to start asking ourselves some pretty tough questions like if

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Speaker 1: I if I were to pass away, if I were

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Speaker 1: to die somehow I walked out of here and got

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Speaker 1: hit by a bus, what happens to that information? Does

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Speaker 1: it stay there forever? Could someone else access it? Could

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Speaker 1: people who hated me leave really nasty messages about me

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Speaker 1: after I die, making my family and friends upset? Assuming

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Speaker 1: I have any friends. I mean, we're doing a hypothetical here,

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Speaker 1: right right, But I mean that that's the thing is

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Speaker 1: that in all these cases, you know, it's all sort

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Speaker 1: of hypothetical because it depends on who you're talking about. Yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: because you know, anybody and everybody is creating a social

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Speaker 1: networking and there there are no guidelines in the United

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Speaker 1: States at any rate to official rules suggest Yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: nothing that's there are no laws in place that species

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Speaker 1: specify what social networking sites can and cannot do, or

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Speaker 1: you know, any kind of rules they should follow should

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Speaker 1: one of the members pass away. Uh, that hasn't stopped

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Speaker 1: some of the sites from formulating their own policies. And

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Speaker 1: we'll get to that in a second. But a lot

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Speaker 1: of what happens depends upon you and your family. So

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Speaker 1: let's start with what you can do in order to

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Speaker 1: protect your your online presence, or even just as a

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Speaker 1: way of letting people you know online what has happened.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there there are people who have lots and

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Speaker 1: lots of friends who their main and sometimes only way

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Speaker 1: of connecting with these people is through social networks. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I've got a ton of friends that, UM, I don't

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Speaker 1: email them, I don't call them, but I see their

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Speaker 1: updates on Facebook. I might see a tweet from them

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Speaker 1: something like that. UM. So if I were to die,

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Speaker 1: how would how would how would I How would anyone

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Speaker 1: get the word out to them? UM? Here's some options

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Speaker 1: you can have. One, of course, is that you make

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Speaker 1: a record of all your user name and password information

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Speaker 1: and you entrust that to someone. Now you can get

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Speaker 1: because most most sites that do have policies require somebody

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Speaker 1: to notify them with official proof. Right. So, but let's

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Speaker 1: assume that the site you're we're talking about here doesn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily have an official policy. Now, they may handle things

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Speaker 1: on a case by case basis. But if you wanted

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Speaker 1: to try and just do a blanket approach so that

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Speaker 1: no matter what the site was, your family wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: to go through the process of contacting the site verifying

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Speaker 1: your death that kind of thing. Um, all they would

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Speaker 1: have to do is they would have the the information there.

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Speaker 1: They could just go ahead and log in into the

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Speaker 1: to your account. So you could create a record of

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Speaker 1: all your log in information and give it to someone,

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Speaker 1: or you could use a service like legacy Locker, which

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Speaker 1: allows you to store use your name and password information

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Speaker 1: for a fee, an annual fee or an upfront one

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Speaker 1: time cost. I think the one time cost is right

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Speaker 1: now and the year lea fee is I think is twenty,

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Speaker 1: so they would store the information for you. Uh. Some

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Speaker 1: people suggest that maybe that's not the best approach because

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Speaker 1: it's a weak point of attack. If a hacker were

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Speaker 1: to somehow access that information, they would have all of

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Speaker 1: your log in information for all of your sites. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Some people suggest that one thing you could do is

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Speaker 1: just give half of your inform nation to one source

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Speaker 1: and the other half to another. So you might give

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Speaker 1: your user names to one person and the passwords to

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Speaker 1: another and not let them know who the other one was,

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Speaker 1: like the secret formula. But then how do they know

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Speaker 1: to hook up after you've passed away and then get

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Speaker 1: all the information out? Or you could tell them about

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Speaker 1: each other. Or you could lock one set in a

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Speaker 1: company like Legacy Locker and that has the the uh,

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Speaker 1: the directions to release that information upon your death, and

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Speaker 1: then the person would have the first half of it

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Speaker 1: could put together in the access the information. It seems

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Speaker 1: like you could put it in a safe deposit. Poah,

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Speaker 1: you could do that too. The issue that has brought

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Speaker 1: up often is that most people don't even think about it,

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Speaker 1: and even when right, yeah, you draft a will, you

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily think who gets my Facebook? You know, just

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Speaker 1: you're you're worried about this? Yeah, yeah, they don't think

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Speaker 1: of pro troofiles like property. Yeah, I mean you're not

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Speaker 1: talking about it. Who takes care of your kids and

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Speaker 1: what happens to the house, and you know who's going

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Speaker 1: to get the cat right, and and it also concerns

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Speaker 1: other people. It's not like your profile is just your information.

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Speaker 1: So on let's let's use Facebook as an example again,

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Speaker 1: because that's that's one of the most recognizable social networking

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Speaker 1: sites in the United States. I would argue it's the

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Speaker 1: most and and they have a policy which but with Facebook,

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Speaker 1: you know, you've got your information that you've put into

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Speaker 1: your profile, but there's also all the information people have left,

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Speaker 1: like if they've flagged photos of you, if they've left

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Speaker 1: messages on your wall, if they've you know, if you've

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Speaker 1: installed applications that allow people to interact with your profile

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Speaker 1: in various ways. There's a lot of different information there

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Speaker 1: that is not technically generated by you, and so that

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Speaker 1: raises questions too, like who owns that information? Now, if

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Speaker 1: you read the terms of service, technically Facebook does, Facebook

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Speaker 1: owns the rights to display all that information. But um,

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Speaker 1: but you know, again, if you're applying this to other

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Speaker 1: sites across the internet, depending on the terms of service,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, it's a tricky situation. It's not necessarily

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Speaker 1: cut and dry. So um, but let's say that, you know,

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Speaker 1: let's say that you have not set aside all your

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Speaker 1: user name, password information. You haven't you have not collected

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Speaker 1: your log in information for someone to get hold of

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Speaker 1: after your death, and then well you can't do anything

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Speaker 1: really because you know, you're just kind of moldering in

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Speaker 1: the grave. You know, you're such an outlet. They're pretty

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Speaker 1: much done as far as the uh, the whole pursuing

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Speaker 1: the social networking thing goes. I mean, there may be

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Speaker 1: a death book out there, but um, I'm not privy

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Speaker 1: to it yet. Yeah, you know they're they're anyway. Um. Oh,

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Speaker 1: well that's true, but we won't. We don't need to

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Speaker 1: get into that yet. But um but yeah, so what

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Speaker 1: can your family and friends do? So, in the case

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Speaker 1: of Facebook, again using them as an example, you have

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Speaker 1: to contact Facebook officials and give them proof. Uh you

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Speaker 1: know that someone somebody you know has passed away, someone

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Speaker 1: with a Facebook profile, because they don't care if it's

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Speaker 1: you know, just some random person. Seriously. Okay, well I'm

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Speaker 1: just pointing. I'm just saying it because someone's going to

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Speaker 1: write in, Uh, there's an online form. Facebook has an

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Speaker 1: actual online form that you go in and you fill out.

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Speaker 1: You include the person's name and their profile information and

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Speaker 1: an obituary. You know, you have to have a link

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Speaker 1: to an obituary or some news article like, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: let's say that your friend um, you know, burned up

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Speaker 1: on reentry after being shot through the air by a tribute.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying that would have to be an awfully

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Speaker 1: powerful tribute to get them outside the atmosphere. I'll show

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Speaker 1: you my plans after the podcast, but you have to

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Speaker 1: you have to send them proof. Yeah, so you've sent

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Speaker 1: them the proof and then Facebook's what they what they

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Speaker 1: will do is they give you two options. The family

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Speaker 1: and choose to either close the account, which means that

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Speaker 1: Facebook will delete all that information. It will be gone.

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Speaker 1: Anyone who was friends with you will now see an

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Speaker 1: empty spot. There will there will there will no longer

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Speaker 1: be a you in that friends list. The other option

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Speaker 1: is to turn it into a memorial site, a memorial profile. Now,

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Speaker 1: memorial profiles are special in that the only people who

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Speaker 1: can interact with memorial profiles are pre existing friends, people

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Speaker 1: who were friends with with the person before they died,

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Speaker 1: So random people cannot suddenly befriend a dead person. And

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Speaker 1: leave messages on that person's memorial wall. Only the people

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Speaker 1: who are already friends can leave any sort of messages.

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Speaker 1: They can only post to the wall. Really, they cannot

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Speaker 1: UH status updates things like that, those are all deleted.

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Speaker 1: Personal identification information can also be deleted, things like UH addresses,

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Speaker 1: phone numbers, that kind of thing, So to prevent people

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Speaker 1: from just ending UH information or letters or whatever to

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Speaker 1: the family. A lot of families say that while they

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Speaker 1: understand the compassion that strangers may have for someone who

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Speaker 1: passes away, it can actually make it more difficult to

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Speaker 1: deal with the grieving process when people are constantly bringing

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Speaker 1: it up to you and you have you know, there's

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Speaker 1: no you have no connection to these people because they

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Speaker 1: are getting something off their chest. But you can't really

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Speaker 1: you know, if you don't know them, there's no way

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Speaker 1: to kind of reciprocate that, right, So you just get

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Speaker 1: more and more burdened on you while these people are

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Speaker 1: expressing compassion UH. And it's it's a difficult thing because

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Speaker 1: you know, as a compassionate person, of course, I would

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Speaker 1: feel sorry for someone who had lost a person that

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Speaker 1: was important to them, even if I didn't know who

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Speaker 1: that person was. But I don't want to add more

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Speaker 1: burden to the griever then they're already experiencing. So that

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Speaker 1: information is taken away. The SaaS updates are taken away,

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Speaker 1: which is probably a good thing because you know, it

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Speaker 1: depends on what your last status update was. You do

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Speaker 1: not want your last stas update to say something like, dude,

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Speaker 1: I was so drunk last night. I don't even know

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Speaker 1: the person I woke up with. That would be an

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Speaker 1: awkward last word to have on your Facebook, So that

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Speaker 1: gets deleted. But friends and family can leave messages on

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Speaker 1: your wall, and many of them use the Facebook a

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Speaker 1: sort of a gathering place to grieve and to heal

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Speaker 1: and to offer support to one another and to share

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Speaker 1: memories of the person who has passed away. And uh,

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Speaker 1: and in that sense, it's a it can be a

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Speaker 1: very valuable asset for people who are trying to deal

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Speaker 1: with the loss. Um. But yeah, so those are your

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Speaker 1: two choices. That's that's the two basic choices. And uh,

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Speaker 1: not every site does this. Not every site has a

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Speaker 1: specific policy to handle this kind of situation. And like, um,

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Speaker 1: my Space for a really long time, I mean that

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Speaker 1: the thing about my Space was they handled everything on

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Speaker 1: a case by case basis. Yeah, yeah, so um yeah, right,

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Speaker 1: now there's information up at the site and it says

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Speaker 1: that you need to provide um an obituary or a

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Speaker 1: death certificate, and they give you an email address to

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Speaker 1: send it to you, and you write from a personal

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Speaker 1: email address and explain your connection to the person who

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Speaker 1: has passed away and your request to delete the profile

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Speaker 1: entirely or to you know, remove certain parts of it.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't appear that there is some kind of a

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Speaker 1: memorial account um. Of course, in either case you have

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Speaker 1: to let them know because otherwise, you know, they have

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Speaker 1: no way of knowing. So then the account will just

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Speaker 1: continue indefinitely until somebody says, hey, you know this person

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Speaker 1: is no longer around yeah Facebook. Facebook specifically UM states

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Speaker 1: that they will not delete a user account UH for

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Speaker 1: inactivity at all. You you have to either request it

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Speaker 1: yourself or again if someone has way. Someone has to

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Speaker 1: be able to requested improved that the person has passed away,

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Speaker 1: so the otherwise the the account will just sit there forever.

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Speaker 1: And of course if it's not turned into a memorial account,

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Speaker 1: all the rules are out the window. The sas updates

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Speaker 1: are still gonna be there. People can leave whatever messages

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Speaker 1: they want. People. If you have not set your profile

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Speaker 1: to private, people will be able to find you in search.

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Speaker 1: They cannot find you in search if your account has

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Speaker 1: been turned to a memorial account, if they are no longer,

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Speaker 1: if they have never been your friend, they won't be

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Speaker 1: able to find the profile. Um so all of that

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Speaker 1: is off the table. If no one speaks up on

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Speaker 1: your behalf when you pass away, your account will just

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Speaker 1: sit there indefinitely until Facebook itself crumbles to the to dust.

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Speaker 1: But uh um, yeah, I mean that's that's something to

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Speaker 1: think about. Two. I mean it's weird to think about

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Speaker 1: this because really, to the people who have passed away,

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Speaker 1: it's not really gonna matter. You know, you, You no

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Speaker 1: longer need to have earthly concerns like who is leaving

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Speaker 1: what on your profile. It's more for the people who

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Speaker 1: are left behind. Which is a weird way to think

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Speaker 1: about it, because your profile is a very personal thing.

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Speaker 1: It's all about you, but all of it, Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: all about It's all about the people who knew you.

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Speaker 1: So it's a weird, weird. Wait, you have to shift

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Speaker 1: your thinking when you get to this this kind of situation.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, let's uh, think about some other elements of

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Speaker 1: social networking passing away. UM. Facebook has a specific policy

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Speaker 1: in place that it will not divulge login information to anyone, right, so, uh,

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Speaker 1: your privacy is protected in that sense. There no one's

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to log into your account unless they're

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Speaker 1: able to guess your password or you've given your password

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Speaker 1: to someone. Uh. No one's gonna be able to log

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Speaker 1: into your account and change anything, which is good because

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Speaker 1: that would also be very upsetting to see someone's profile

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Speaker 1: change after they've passed away. Yeah, that's a very sick joke. Uh,

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Speaker 1: even if it's done with the best of intentions, I

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Speaker 1: would imagine that would have some pretty nasty repercussions from

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Speaker 1: friends and family who would think it would not be

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Speaker 1: kind of crass. So uh so Facebook does not give

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Speaker 1: that information out to anyone. UM. And when it converts

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Speaker 1: a profile into a memorial profile, there's no way to

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Speaker 1: log into that profile, even if you have the user

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Speaker 1: name and password. So if if you've given the user

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Speaker 1: name and password to someone, but they choose to convert

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Speaker 1: your profile to two memorial status, uh, no one will

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Speaker 1: be able to get into that and make any changes

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Speaker 1: from that point on. Um and again other sites, it's

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Speaker 1: more of a case by case basis. A lot of

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Speaker 1: them haven't really thought of it. I mean, when you're

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Speaker 1: creating a social networking site, this is the sort of

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Speaker 1: thing that's like furthest from your mind. You're really trying

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Speaker 1: to think of ways to create an environment where people

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Speaker 1: can connect with one another and use your application and

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Speaker 1: uh and and have it grow in popularity. You're not

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Speaker 1: necessarily thinking, oh, what do I do if someone passes away? Um.

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Speaker 1: Then suddenly you you get confronted with an email. You know,

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Speaker 1: you just completed around venture capital funding and you're thinking

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Speaker 1: about how cool it is that you have this new

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Speaker 1: side up, and then suddenly somebody goes, hey, you know,

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Speaker 1: I hate to buggy about this, but you know, yeah, So,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's a it's a difficult situation. It's not

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Speaker 1: and it's not something that it's fun to think about

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Speaker 1: by initiation imagination, but it is something that's worth thinking about. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I mean because a lot of this information, I

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Speaker 1: mean it sort of depends on the account, but this

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Speaker 1: information is out there on the server somewhere, and eventually,

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Speaker 1: who knows where it's gonna end up. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I shall also point out that we're recording this uh

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Speaker 1: in early November two thousand nine, late October two thou nine,

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Speaker 1: Facebook made this this sort of approach official. But they've

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Speaker 1: been the company had been doing this for a couple

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Speaker 1: of years. It was just it was quiet. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you you could contact them and you could have profiles

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Speaker 1: converted to memorial profiles. UH already. It's just that they

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Speaker 1: kind of they kind of made it an official announcement

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Speaker 1: in October. Part of that is probably due to Canada,

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Speaker 1: because there are major concerns about online privacy in Canada,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of companies that are springing up that

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Speaker 1: are all about social networking raise concerns in the Canadian

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Speaker 1: government's mind about not that the Canadian government has one mind,

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Speaker 1: but the minds of government officials in Canada that um

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Speaker 1: that perhaps they are not as careful about protecting privacy

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Speaker 1: as they should be. And when Canada started looking into

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Speaker 1: things like that specifically at Facebook, one of the elements

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Speaker 1: in there was, you know, I have a have a

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Speaker 1: well defined policy of what happens if someone were to

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Speaker 1: pass away and what would be done with that person's information.

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Speaker 1: So that probably has something to do with it. And

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Speaker 1: I suppose that probably also means that there are other

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Speaker 1: sites that are working on developing policies that can be

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Speaker 1: clearly outlined. And I would imagine so, and you know,

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Speaker 1: you think about it, there's so many sites out there.

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Speaker 1: I just think of all the different sites that this

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Speaker 1: applies to. And it's not just the things like Facebook

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Speaker 1: and my Space. It's yeah, I mean I checked on

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Speaker 1: Twitter and didn't see a thing, you know, photo photo

347
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Speaker 1: sharing sites, YouTube, YouTube videos. Um, I mean, goodness knows

348
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Speaker 1: that YouTube is already one of those places where I

349
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Speaker 1: think the nastiest comments on the Internet kind of pop

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Speaker 1: up on YouTube. Stuff on there. It's YouTube and four chan.

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Speaker 1: That's what the two places where you're gonna see the

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Speaker 1: the the most tool curling, frightening stuff. Ever, that's not

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Speaker 1: a knock against four Chan. I'm just saying, you go

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Speaker 1: into that random channel, you are you are taking your

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Speaker 1: Internet in your own hands. My friends, Um, those guys

356
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Speaker 1: they play off and now, I mean, you know they

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Speaker 1: find it fun, so more power to them. They're mostly

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Speaker 1: doing it to each other. So uh but the yeah, YouTube,

359
00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:04,760
Speaker 1: same sort of thing, not same sort of thing, but YouTube.

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Speaker 1: You see like these comments that can be really really critical.

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Speaker 1: You don't want to see that popping up after someone

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Speaker 1: passes away. What what if they're keeping a video journal

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Speaker 1: and people are leaving nasty comments on that last video

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Speaker 1: journal entry. That's something that the family and friends are

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Speaker 1: are possibly going to want to to revisit, as you know,

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Speaker 1: this is a memory of someone they knew and it's

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Speaker 1: the most recent version of whatever. And yeah, so there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of things to think about, and we

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Speaker 1: don't have answers for all of this because once again,

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Speaker 1: technology is moving faster than culture is. And uh, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that we're going to see a lot more movement

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Speaker 1: on this in various ways. We're probably gonna see a

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Speaker 1: lot of missteps where people are going to do what

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Speaker 1: they think is the right thing. It's gonna come back

375
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Speaker 1: and blow up in their face. It's just bound to

376
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Speaker 1: happen because we're human beings. We make mistakes. Um. The

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Speaker 1: thing important thing to remember is that I think everyone

378
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Speaker 1: has the the same goal in mind, which is to

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Speaker 1: respect the members who joined the community. Um. It may

380
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Speaker 1: be that they take the wrong path, but I think

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Speaker 1: as long as everyone keeps that understanding, uh, we will

382
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Speaker 1: eventually get to the right solution. I think Facebook is

383
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Speaker 1: definitely on the right track. I can't really find any

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Speaker 1: fault in in their process. No, and it's uh, it's

385
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Speaker 1: pretty well thought out, you know, with different different contingencies.

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Speaker 1: And you know the fact that there is a memorial

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Speaker 1: account is pretty nice. Ye. Yeah, I would like to

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Speaker 1: say right now, I hope I don't see one for

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Speaker 1: a really long time. So so to all my Facebook friends,

390
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Speaker 1: eat your venis. Unless you're allergic, then don't. Okay, got

391
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Speaker 1: anything else, Okay, let's let's move on to a little

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Speaker 1: listener mail. This listener mail comes from ROSEMARYE. And Rosemary says, Hi, guys,

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Speaker 1: I really like playing the old games on the original

394
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Speaker 1: versions of Nintendo and have been rather confused by how

395
00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 1: duck Hunt and similar arcade games work. The gun console

396
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:13,960
Speaker 1: has kind of left me bewildered, and I would like

397
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 1: to learn about it. I don't know if you have

398
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Speaker 1: covered this in a podcast or not, but I'm really

399
00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:22,880
Speaker 1: curious in knowing how it works. Thanks much, Rosemary. Well, Rosemary, Uh,

400
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 1: we have an article about this. It's actually a very

401
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: short one, but I'll give you a kind of a

402
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:30,959
Speaker 1: rundown on how the light gun works for video games.

403
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:34,600
Speaker 1: So light guns have a little sensor in them called

404
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,399
Speaker 1: a photo diode in the barrel. All right, that's since

405
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:42,880
Speaker 1: since his light that comes from your television screen. When

406
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,760
Speaker 1: you pull the trigger, it causes it sends a signal

407
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,760
Speaker 1: to the video game. It makes the television flash for

408
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 1: a second. It flashes very very briefly. That's what the

409
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,960
Speaker 1: flash you see whenever you're playing Duck Hunt or Gumshoe

410
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 1: or any of those other games that involved the light gun.

411
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:03,400
Speaker 1: And when that screen flashes, what's happening is it's blanking

412
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Speaker 1: the screen and painting just the target a single color.

413
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Speaker 1: So you're either getting a black screen with a white

414
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Speaker 1: object or a white screen with a black object. And

415
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,200
Speaker 1: if the diode is able to pick up that object,

416
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,160
Speaker 1: it counts it as a hit. So it all has

417
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:19,480
Speaker 1: to do with sensing light. And it does this really

418
00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 1: really fast, so we just see the screen flicker. We

419
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,040
Speaker 1: don't necessarily see the actual, you know, outline of the object.

420
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: But that's why you'll see that that quick flash whenever

421
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 1: you're playing with those old light gun games. And um,

422
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:36,200
Speaker 1: it's kind of a neat, neat way of a really

423
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,440
Speaker 1: creative way of causing finding a new user interface for

424
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:44,199
Speaker 1: video games I thought it was pretty cool. So, um,

425
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:47,680
Speaker 1: now the newer games are different there. They don't necessarily

426
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,359
Speaker 1: use that same technology like the WE games. They use

427
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: that that's using an accelerometer and other elements to detect

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Speaker 1: where your WE mode is pointed. There's an infrared ray,

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00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 1: there's a sensor that's that's a different monster altogether. We're

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00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,119
Speaker 1: talking about the old games here. It would be it

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00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: would have to be constantly flashing as you use your

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00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: you know, WE remote as, and then those of us

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Speaker 1: with epilepsy would really hate playing games, yes, exactly. Fortunately

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00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: that's not how it works, So Rose Marie, I hope

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00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: that answers your question. If any of you have any

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00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:26,080
Speaker 1: other questions, concerns, criticisms, suggestions for episodes, you can email us.

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00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: Our email address is tech stuff at how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com. Remember we've got our live show every Tuesday

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Speaker 1: one pm Eastern. You can find that at the blogs

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00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:36,879
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Just look on the

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Speaker 1: right hand side and uh, if you want to learn more,

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00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 1: there's actually an article up on the site about what

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00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:46,159
Speaker 1: happens to my online personal information after I die? Written

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00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 1: by yours Truly that was a real joy to research.

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00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: Let me tell you um, but that's also available how

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00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and Chris and I will talk

447
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot

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Speaker 1: com And be sure to check out the new tech

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00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:12,120
Speaker 1: stuff blog now on the House Stuff Works homepage, brought

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Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

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00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 1: are you