Genealogy Chat

I have just had communication from someone who is likely to be a family member (from way back), he has given me access to his tree, and I am disturbed to see the names of young children there, with their dates and places of birth, and even the nickname of one. I am not sure if it didn't even include their current address.

Naturally I have contacted heim to advise that he hides the information, I am pretty worried about the possible consequences of it falling into the wrong hands.

Is there some way the powers that be can post a prominent message (perhaps we could have one of those annoying pop-ups) to alert people to the dangers of showing such information to the whole community, with details of how to hide it.

Regards

Margaret

I agree Margaret.

I suggested to GR ages ago that new members should be warned more about this.

Sue
x

Sue, you are my one and only reply to what I think is a very serious mistake. I feel that Genes should automatically hide living relatives unless a member opts to show them.

I'm not too worried about my daughters now in their mid twenties and living nowhere near their birthplaces, but to have two toddlers with their names and actually addresses is scary. I even had a nightmare about it last night.

The contact I advised as not yet got back to me.

Thanks anyway

Margaret

You got to be carefull.
I think even having birthday threads,is that a good idea do you think?

Marion

Margaret,

You are so right, I have no young children on my tree but still hide living relatives and even if I eventually give name details I only give approx birth year and never where they live.
I agree as well we could do with a prominent message. Surely it is easy to have a warning next to the tree access icon

Regards

Colin
PS Another reason to nudge threads is the fact they drop so fast. I hadn't seen your thread until a couple of minutes ago

As far as I am aware, hiding living relatives on GR only makes them so to people viewing your tree. The names are still on the database and are visible in searches, Hotmatches etc. If you don't want anyone whatsoever to see the names then don't put them on your tree in the first place.

I have access to over 150 trees, and only a tiny handful have hidden living relations.

Margaret, you say that, naturally, you have contacted the person letting you have access to their tree suggesting they remove the information. Has it occurred to you that they might find this a tad rude? If I received such a message I would most likely delete the connection there and then.

can i say a big thank you i spend so much time drilling my children on internet safety that i am giulty of not doing it myself. i had wrongly assumed that this was automatic onsite, now i am aware that living relitives can be seen i have hidden them.thank you very much from me at least for bringing this to my attentian.regards victoria

Sorry, Peter, I don't understand - why would you delete a connection if the person asks you to remove living people?

Margaret, you probably didn't get a lot of replies because there have been numerous threads on the same subject.

It's against GR's terms and conditions to include the names of living people without their permission, and if your contact doesn't remove them, contact GR and they will.

Mary, because it is none of their business who I choose to have in my tree.

I am not talking about breaches of T's and C's,
here, that is a different matter altogether.

It is their business if it's them or their children, for example.

So long as they explain politely that there's a risk of identity theft, I can't see why it sounds rude.

I've had to do this myself, and the person seemed surprised, but not offended.

I have only just come accross this post as I was looking for another.
Might I add, that although people have the option of having relatives that are still alive as "living", but i personaly frind it more helpfull if they are shown, to help in clarrification of my findings. Everyone in my family, certainly the immediate family and as far as cousins, 2nd cousins great aunts etc, know I am doing the tree, and I have asked for their permision to have there info shown. Obviously I do not put anything down like addresses and contact details, but I don't see what harm there is of their names and when they were born. Especialy as they have not objected!
I personaly can't think of anything more annoying than someone letting me have access to their tree and its not any help to me because I can't see their names for clarrification, which then results in me having to send yet another message to ask for more details.

Perhaps, if people feel so strongly about this, they should ask the relevent family members in their tree if they are happy to have their names on show.