SOP for Releasing Private Data Generated by Deceased Student?

[Bryce Cunningham <bcunningham () COLLEGES-FENWAY ORG>]

At the institutions I serve, we’ve had a few tragic cases of deceased students where the parents or other family 
requested access to the deceased’s emails, laptop contents, or both. If your institution has a request form or policy 
for this situation I’d appreciate you sharing it since I’ve been asked if we can establish a procedure that handles 
such requests in order to reduce our response time and improve consistency.  My question is only about policy and SOP, 
*not* the legal question of whether or not the data should be released (that is determined by whether the deceased has 
a Will covering their digital legacy).

Bryce Cunningham, MS, CISM, CISSP
Information Security Officer
Colleges of the Fenway:
Mass College of Art and Design &
Wentworth Institute of Technology
C: 617-396-7052




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