After Death, QQ Numbers and Virtual Property are a Legal Grey Area

After death, a person’s online life – from QQ numbers to social media passwords and virtual currency – remains a legal grey area in China. And it’s an issue more people are encountering, as SNS become more prevalent. In 2004, a group of Chinese lawyers pushed for legislation to protect virtual property, but it came to nought. Then in 2009, authorities – alarmed by attempts to trade QQ coins – clamped down on virtual currencies and specified that such items can only be redeemed when an online service is terminated. But that still leaves the problem of inheritance and transference upon death in a legal limbo.

Phoenix New Media today, following on from a business newspaper, reports a person who is attempting to reclaim a dead relative’s social media accounts, and also suggests two methods to solve this whole issue.

Valuable Virtual Assets

Recently, one Mrs Wang contacted Tencent – makers of the QQ IM and social gaming platform – to access her recently deceased husband’s QQ account, so as to claim back photos, and also to keep his QQ number (which is even more prized an asset than a catchy phone number here). But without the password, Tencent were legally bound not to help out, and so Mrs Wang was left wondering why her husband’s social media life had to be discarded, unable to be inherited.

In another case, one Mr Liu is contemplating what’ll happen to his rare, six-digit QQ number once he dies. It’s something which could be worth as much as 10,000 RMB (about US$1,600) if sold online (though Tencent’s EULA technically forbids it). As such, he regards it as an asset of his which, like a valuable vase, he should be able to hand down to his kids. Meanwhile, veteran online game players say that their gaming achievements and virtual weapons/powers are worth even more, and ought to be protected in law, same as with physical items.

One major stumbling block to a law on virtual property is a lack of a way to verify account credentials. A professor at Shanxi University School of Law points out that a controversial ‘real name’ system would in theory be needed to back it up:

Digital heritage is a virtual thing, so if you want legislation to protect the inheritance process for these, you’d first need to implement the real-name system.

But right now, according to China’s current Property Law and other legal requirements, legal protection of property is confined to real property, not including virtual property, since it is not technically even property.

Solutions to Virtual Inheritance

So what can be done here? If the law won’t catch up with social media, then people can implement some alternatives. A Chinese newspaper found two solutions, which also might work globally:

1. Use a digital heritage service:
   Yes, China has this covered already… There are companies which, for a fee, will hold all the social media details you give them, secured with a master password. They’ll send you regular emails, to which you need to reply to prove that you’re alive and well. Once you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil, your unanswered email will indicate to this company that they can release your digital details to your password-bearing family. It’s just a case of finding a trust-worthy company who won’t have gone bankrupt and lost all your details by the time you kick the bucket.