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From: "Shari Handley" <>
Subject: Next Agenda Item: General Policy Statement on Living Persons
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:27:59 -0400


At this time, I'd like to hear some discussion about adopting a general
USGenWeb policy covering the posting of data on living persons, pro or
con.

I'd like to submit for your perusal the following statements as food for
thought:

"Whether you are sharing publicly or privately, NEVER include
information about living individuals in what you share. The invasion of
personal privacy and the potential for the mis-use of this information
is simply too great. The genealogical community is starting to learn
this admonition fairly well but there are new researchers joining our
ranks ever day so it never hurts to repeat this loudly and often.
Information on the living generations of our families does not
significantly add to our genealogical research. If you wish to keep
track of information on living cousins, keep it in a database separate
from the data which you share. GEDCOM files can be easily scrubbed clean
of living individuals see Cyndi's List – Software – Privacy Issues at
http://www.CyndisList.com/software.htm#Privacy. Consider how you would
feel if Great Aunt Mary were cheated out of some money by a fraudster
who found her personal information as a result of something from your
genealogy database."
~ Mark Howells, "Share and Beware: Sharing Genealogy in the
Information Age", http://www.oz.net/~markhow/writing/share.htm

"Don't post information on living persons. If you need a reason, think
about the number of times you have used your mother's maiden name for
identification purposes. In particular, do not include full names,
birthdates, birthplaces, addresses, occupations, degrees, phone numbers,
or social security numbers. You can use a filtering program to remove
data on living persons from your GEDCOM file such as GEDClean32,
GEDLiving, or GEDPrivy."
~ Maureen Taylor, "Privacy and the Family Home Page",
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/71_taylor.html

". . . Responsible family historians consistently -
- respect the restrictions on sharing information that arise from the
rights of another as an author, originator or compiler; as a living
private person; or as a party to a mutual agreement.
- convey personal identifying information about living people—like
age, home address, occupation or activities—only in ways that those
concerned have expressly agreed to."
~ National Genealogical Society, "Genealogical Standards and
Guidelines", http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comstandsharing.htm

"Genealogist who post information should respect the concerns of living
relatives who feel that posting information about them online is an
invasion of privacy. Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
~ Rhonda R. McClure, "Twigs & Trees with Rhonda: Ethics in Genealogy"

"Though genealogy sites provide a wealth of information to those who are
tracing their family lineage, they often post personal information such
as date of birth and mother's maiden name. And for living persons, these
pieces of data could be misused by identity thieves. Many people object
to having their personal information so readily accessible on the
Internet. . . . We recommend that genealogists do not include the
information of living persons on family trees that are posted online."
~ Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, "PRC's Privacy Update No. 2:5",
http://www.privacyrights.org/newsletter/040809.htm

Shari


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