Facebook is rolling out new options that will allow you to choose a person to maintain your account after your die. The feature will initially be available in the US, with other countries to follow later.

Until now, the world's largest social network froze profile pages of those it learned had died in order to ensure the privacy and security of family and friends. With this change the person you designate as 'legacy contact', as Facebook is calling them, will be able to manage parts of your account after you're gone.

Legacy contacts will have limited permissions; they'll be allowed to write a post, change your profile picture, respond to new friend requests, and download an archive of your posts and photos. This means that they cannot download the contents of your private messages, edit what you or your Facebook friends have already posted, as well as delete a photo or the entire account.

There are some other points worth noting, too. You can only select one person as your legacy contact, and that person has to be your Facebook friend. A legacy contact is not authorized to pass along the responsibility to someone else. If you fail to choose a legacy contact but name a digital heir in a legal will, they'll be allowed to manage your account. Last;y, of course, you can always choose to have your account deleted post death.

To choose your legacy contact, head to Settings -> Security and the select the Legacy Contact option present at the bottom of the page. The new feature is only available to users in the United States at launch.