Privacy issues

are very important when it comes to family trees. For one thing, identity fraud is a risk, though not as common a problem as some people make out - they are more interested in your credit card number. Nevertheless, from a family tree a person might find out your full name, date and place of birth and your mother's maiden name - questions often asked of you when a company is seeking to verify that you are who you say you are. Nowadays, most companies add other criteria that you probably won't find in a family tree: your pet's name, your driving licence number, passport number, etc.

[Incidentally, have you thought about inventing a "mother's maiden name" for the sake of those places where the real maiden name is not legally required - think of it as a password. Eg, try the maiden name of one of your grandmothers or your favourite teacher at school or... Of course, you will have to remember it!]

Apart from fraud, there are nevertheless personal and sensitive issues to be considered. These can be hidden from guests or from everyone.

No current addresses (email or postal) or phone numbers are included in this site unless requested by the person concerned.

The two columns below describe how privacy is protected on this web site.

How is privacy protected?

On this site, your privacy is protected by allowing access to information about Restricted people (see next column) only if a person

1. has registered,
2. has been given access to information about Restricted people, and
3. is logged in.

Guests (and registered users without the required access) cannot search for Restricted people. If they do come across them while working through descendants of unrestricted people, they will see only their last name and initials and no other information or linked document. However, be aware that it is possible though unlikely for the surname and initials of a person to be indexed.

Who can be a registered user? Any one can register. The administrator sets levels of access for new registrations. Family members who appear in the tree and who also share their own family information will normally be given access to information about Restricted people. If the person is not a family member, their reasons for wanting such access and their bona fides will be established before any such access is given.

There is a second level of privacy. A registered user may be given access to Restricted people only in their particular branch - eg, only the Roy pedigree or the Hogan descendants.

There is a third level of privacy available to you where no one, guest or logged in member, can see information. This requires that I "flag" a file as Restricted in my computer database. Only the last name then appears in the web site database, to visitors and registered users alike.

Who are Restricted people?

The use of the term "living" is widely used in genealogy though a term like "Restricted" (or "private") is better, since it covers a range of situations. How are people identified as Restricted?

1. A person is automatically marked as Restricted who is living - who has a birth year recorded which is less than 105 years ago and there is no death year.
2. People who are clearly living but have no birth year are flagged as "Restricted" - if I know that;
3. An estimate or calculation of a person's birth year based on other information available is entered. These dates are entered as "[est YEAR]". THEY ARE NOT RELIABLE - simply a device to provide privacy automatically to living people.

If a person is not Restricted their full name, photos and notes will show. Their name will be "logged" by search engines and you can search for them using Google, Yahoo, etc.

Guests cannot see any detail for Restricted people other than surname and initials and links to other family members, but logged in people with appropriate privileges (mostly family members) can. So if you want to search for yourself, say, you will need to search for a deceased forbear and then work your way down through the links.