Do you think people go through peoples phones when/if they die?

[Perhapsimight]

I am thinking about if someone died or perhaps more if they died in suspicious circumstances. Do they go through everything on your phone and can they do that?
I post under different names and would worry about people reading all my woes. I also weigh myself a lot and nobody knows this so I wouldn't want them to know that. Many other things too including soft porn.
Does anyone know if people can do this?

If it was a police matter then definitely yes, otherwise I would say probably not.

If your phone doesn't have a password on it, then I would imagine people would go through it.
If you die in suspicious circumstances then the police will go through it whether you have a password on it or not, they simply bypass it.

I think about this. Not so much dying but going missing. Like that poor woman in York who had her personal life exposed because she was missing. Not sure what can be done about it.

I think —agonise— over this too. But from what I gather, if people can get in to the phone then they will.

Police would definitely if it was suspicious.

When my Sister died under difficult circumstances, the police did take her phone & went through it.

However, we as a family have no idea what was on it & as it had a password it was returned to us by the police switched off, and we did not know the password. The same with her Laptop & Ipad.

There is software the police have that can be used to download the content of phone, e.g photos, text, deleted texts etc.

I would have thought NoK might access your phone too, if only to let your contacts know you had died.

Okay, I don't care about the police going through it but it's family that I wouldn't want seeing it.

Are you feeling alright? Why are you wondering this?

OP this reads like a quiet scream, would you like someone to talk with? I’m worried about you

That's kind five. No nothing wrong, I just sometimes wonder if I was in a car accident or if I disappeared or something whether my family would have to find out all these things about me. That's all. I'm just a private person.

Oh and mum. Sorry nothing wrong, just wondering.

Yes. I often tell my OH that I would like us to delete our WhatsApp conversations monthly (or at least periodically), because I do not like the thought that if anything were to happen to us people would be able to read back through our private conversations. It feels hugely intrusive and I don’t like the idea of it at all. And it’s not because of content - it’s not as though there’s anything in there that I wouldn’t want people to see or know, really. It’s just that that is a daily record of our personal relationship and it should remain for our eyes only.

He thinks it’s a bit silly and doesn’t understand what the big deal is.

I’m also not close with my OHs family, I like them all and we get along fine but I’m not in a relationship with them, I’m in a relationship with him. I wouldn’t want them to know everything about me or who i am or what we are like as a couple. It’s really not any of their business IMO.

Umm... why aren't you more worried about the possibility of dying, especially in suspicious circumstances, than the possibility that you weighing yourself a lot might upset your family afterwards? Whatever they discover (IF they ever do) it will be a pinprick compared with the pain of losing you - you are irreplaceable.

Do you think you are putting yourself at risk?

Anything I don't want others to see I put additional passwords on. It won't stop a police investigation but will stop others from seeing things they shouldn't be seeing.

WhatsApp also have additional security. Even when on the home screen, my phone requires my fingerprint to get in.

When my brother died the police took his phone and laptop, but because it was an iPhone/MacBook they couldn’t get into any of it. There was talk of them being sent off to the Met but in the end it wasn’t likely to change the outcome of anything related to his cause of death or the coroners investigation. It would probably have given the police some useful intel relating to other things, but I don’t know if any of it would have been admissible if it had been obtained in that way. It took us months to get them back.

We had an old phone of his that whilst not connect to a phone network, was logged into his Apple account and on the WiFi, so we were able to get some answers to things ourselves. The police didn’t want that phone off us, we offered it.

Also, once you’re dead you won’t care about whether people know you weighed yourself a lot, or if you looked at porn sometimes. Your sentient existence will have ended and with it your embarrassment and desire for privacy. And your loved ones would be so devastated to have lost you that they won’t care either, most days they’ll be so desperate to have you back that they wouldn’t care if you just spent all your time masturbating whilst stood on a set of bathroom scales.

I am very aware of the loss of my sibling, and the fact that a day will come where he’s been gone longer than he was ever here, or that one day so much time will have passed that there will be nobody else left in my life who knew him, and it terrifies me. I don’t care that he looked at porn or did drugs or any other unsavoury things, we just miss him, and all that things that made him who he was.

My friend died of suicide, the police were not interested in his electronics. His executor tried hard to get into his electronics but failed because he had set his security high.

I think we all need to think about a digital will and what digital footprint we will leave behind.

Yes, I agree.

I would not be bothered if the police deemed it necessary to have a look on my phone, it’s family or my OH’s family that I do not wish to know everything about us (me) or the ins and outs of our relationship. I would like that to die with us (me).

And actually to me, the fact that it will become irrelevant to me when I am dead and gone is by the by - it matters to me now, while I am alive.

I've got epilepsy & serious mental health illness so told my sister where to find my phone PIN & Facebook login etc just in case.

I very regularly delete my browsing & search histories.

I think it’s good to think about what happens after our death to our FB etc. But not to worry about it. Today I keep seeing notifications that “Pam is 40 today, send her birthday wishes” only she’s not, she died 3 years ago after a long illness. It’s not easy to see.

2 people I knew long ago had a deal that if one died the other would go through the phone and delete internet history, what’s app etc. One died and the other did delete everything. It was in no way a suspicious death though which I think makes a difference

I think it depends on the person and circumstances. My brother died last week. I haven't read any messages on his phone. To do so would be an invasion of his privacy. He deserves privacy even in death.

Other people's circumstances may cause the reading of messages to be necessary but my brothers death, although unexpected, was of natural causes. There was no need to have a nosey at his phone.