• FILE - In this May 25, 2016 file photo, Illinois Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, D-Westchester, speaks to lawmakers at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. States have begun passing laws dealing with how online accounts can be accessed after death. Until now, Google, Facebook and other companies have said a federal privacy law bars them from releasing information unless they have permission from the account owner even if that person is dead. Welch, a suburban Chicago lawmaker, sponsored Illinois' measure on the topic. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File) ORG XMIT: ILSP201 Photo: Seth Perlman / Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Photo: Seth Perlman
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FILE - In this May 25, 2016 file photo, Illinois Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, D-Westchester, speaks to lawmakers at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. States have begun passing laws dealing with how online accounts can be accessed after death. Until now, Google, Facebook and other companies have said a federal privacy law bars them from releasing information unless they have permission from the account owner even if that person is dead. Welch, a suburban Chicago lawmaker, sponsored Illinois' measure on the topic. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File) ORG XMIT: ILSP201 less
FILE - In this May 25, 2016 file photo, Illinois Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, D-Westchester, speaks to lawmakers at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. States have begun passing laws dealing with how online accounts ... more
Photo: Seth Perlman

Springfield, Ill.

When a loved one dies, laws cover how their houses, cars, and other property are passed on to relatives. But the rules are murkier — and currently far more restrictive — when it comes to pictures on Facebook, emails to friends or relatives and even financial records stored in online cloud accounts.

Google, Facebook and other companies have said a federal privacy law approved decades before digital storage became common prevents them from releasing electronic memories or records unless the account owner grants permission — even if the person is dead. Without an estate plan, families must try to crack their loved one's passwords or take the costly step of litigating the matter — and some have, with little success.

The laws governing how to divide belongings after someone dies have not caught up with the technological advances that have permeated the ways people communicate, but states have begun trying to bridge that gap. This year, Illinois was one of 19 states that passed similar laws to clarify what Internet companies can release after someone dies and when information should remain inaccessible.

"I post a lot of photos. If something were to happen to me, maybe my wife would like to have access to those photos," said Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, a state legislator from suburban Chicago who sponsored Illinois' measure.

With the new laws, unless a person expresses otherwise, companies will release basic information from a user, such as the person's email contact list, to help find friends or gather an inventory of a person's assets. But to get the actual contents of the emails or photos and documents stored in a cloud service, people must proactively specify who they want to have their digital belongings.

The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986, doesn't anticipate the release of online information when executing wills. Because probate law is typically left to the states, the laws legislatures are passing could effectively set new rules.

Initial drafts of Illinois' law required administrators of a person's estate to have access to everything from users' accounts in cases where someone did not leave instructions about what to do with digital assets. Only one state, Delaware, managed to pass that version, but 27 legislatures tried and failed in 2014.