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Archiver > CAORANGE > 1999-05 > 0925949213


From: Sunni Bloyd <>
Subject: Genealogists--Beware (a reprise, but worth reposting)
Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 17:06:53 -0700


Hi All,
Thought I'd share this from Ancestry Newsletter..... Linda

SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE: "ADVENTURES IN CYBERSPACE,"
by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.

Would you post personal information about your family -- their
birth dates and who they married and when -- on the local grocery
store's bulletin board? You wouldn't? Then why would you post it
on the World Wide Web?

The Web is the world's bulletin board, says Carole Lane, author
of ``Naked in Cyberspace: How to Find Personal Information
Online'' (Pemberton Press, 1997, $29.95).

Don't make it easy for thieves to steal your (or your children's)
identity by posting your Social Security number, birth date,
address and mother's maiden name on the Web either. Of course,
you wouldn't do that. However, if you want a real shocker, take a
look at the way some naïve genealogists are exposing themselves
and their relatives online.

Moreover, genealogists are not thinking of possible consequences
when they take a GEDCOM from Cousin Linda (who got part of it
from Cousin Wayne, who received some of it from Cousin Julie) and
post it on their home page. Oh, it's wonderful information, right
down to the grandchildren's names, their spouses, and all their
birth dates and addresses. But, the fact that they are invading
the privacy of their relatives evidently does not cross their
minds. We do not have the right to share personal information
(online or otherwise) about living family members --without their
consent.

This is not an exclusive Web problem. Do you copy family group
sheets and send them to other cousins via snail mail, or share
information on mailing lists or newsgroups about your living
relatives? Living relatives -- not deceased ancestors -- are
entitled to their privacy, so you should not share identifying
information about the living, their spouses (and ex-spouses) or
their children with others.

It is all right to gather and preserve such information in your
private files on your clan for future generations, but there is
no valid reason to be publishing it -- in books, newsletters, or
on the Web, or to be sending it to any and every cousin who asks
for it and who may publish it with no concern for others' privacy
rights.

Recently, while gathering material for a book, I examined
hundreds of genealogists' home pages, and they are a pretty sight
-- for cyber thieves, that is. In our eagerness to share our
family history material and utilize the power of the Internet, we
have forgotten that not everyone is honest. If you're an online
genealogist, keep these guidelines in mind:

-- Do not post genealogical information regarding living persons
with an identifier: Instead of saying that Jane Smith is your
mother or grandmother, say that you are researching the Jane
Smith line, and here is the information you have on her, and
where you've looked:

-- Do not post Social Security numbers or other identifying
numbers such as a driver's license number.

-- Use utility programs such as "GedClean" or
"WebGED:Progenitor" to remove data about living individuals from
your GEDCOM database before sending it to someone else. That way
your birth date and birthplace won't wind up in someone else's
database who might share it with the world.

-- Ask permission before you send a GEDCOM you've received to
someone else. That way the originator can keep track of who has
their data.

(c) 1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

--
Sunni Bloyd
CaGenWeb County Coordinator,Fresno County, California
http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/fresncty.htm
Kings County, California
http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/kingscty.htm
Glenn County, California
http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/glenncty.htm
Orange County, California
http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/orangcty.htm
Jack County, Texas
http://www.rootsweb.com/~txjack/
JonJan Felines--American Shorthairs & American Wirehairs
http://www.cheta.net/connect/cat/gallery/JonJan/default.ht

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