Designing SADD: A social media agent for the detection of the deceased

Abstract

As the number of profiles and user generated content online continues to grow, many accounts in time will inevitably belong to those that are deceased. Questions arise as what to do with content on these profiles when it becomes known that the owner of the profile has died. Additionally, many users have several profiles spread across various social networking sites. This project describes our efforts to create SADD - A Social Media Agent for the Detection of the Deceased. This tool aims to systematically identify social media accounts that may belong to a deceased user based on related posts from other users as well as changes in profile interaction. As part of this project, we present a basic framework and prototype for the program and include survey results about the perception of this type of tool which examine how users may wish to preserve online content. This project is a continuation of previous research related to virtual memorialization of web based and virtual world content and interaction.