Technological advances made in the recent years have completely changed the way in which man interacts with the environment as well as with the fellow men. However, technology being just but technology has come up with a whole package of pertinent issues. At the centre stage is the ethical standards governing the use of the various medium of communication which have sprouted in the last century (Bélanger, 2013). By nature, the Company is the one which develops the set of rules and regulations governing the ethical practices to be adhered to by the customers.  This paper thus delves into the issue of ethical practices and standards in emails with a special attention being given to the critical issue of email privacy.  The discussion will evolve around Ellsworth’s case and the optimal goal is to determine whether it was prudent to force Yahoo to transfer Ellsworth’s email address to his parents.

First and foremost, one of the rules regarding privacy of Yahoo’s email is that no right of survivorship. This means that the email of one person cannot be transferred to another person. The rules also explicitly state that once someone dies, the email account is permanently terminated.  This usually done through submission of a death certificate to any Yahoo office near you (Yahoo, 2008).  After closure of the email account, all the details therein are permanently deleted. As such the Company has set clear guidelines which restrict access to another individual’s personal email.  Moreover, Yahoo requires that its customers give consent to the fact that the Company may in certain circumstances get access to the personal account of the user. This will depend on the severity of the matter in question.