I had a reader throw out a question about genealogy and privacy. They asked if I knew of any Virginia law that would prevent them from including a living person's information in their family tree, if the person in question objected. I would assume the intent was to publish this tree online or in print, in order to draw the objection.
I do not know of anything specifically, in a legal sense, but I would personally avoid publishing the information of anyone living. It is just not a good practice. Think of it like this...What is the first thing your credit card asks you when you call...what is your mother's maiden name. If you publish that information online, you are giving identity thieves a head start. Even obituaries tend to give away too much information in some cases.
Virginia law prevents the Department of Health from releasing any birth record for 100 years and any marriages, divorces or deaths for 50 years, unless you are an extremely close family member. I do not know of any other laws off the top of my head. I know you can get recent marriage licenses at county courthouses but they at least censor the Social Security number.
In general, if someone asks that you remove their information...I would. It is not worth pissing them off when they may have something you want down the road (photos, documents, etc.). I would personally be mad if someone published my kid's information online so I can agree with the person in question. As a matter of fact, I have never given anyone access to my personal Family Tree Maker file. I only share bits and pieces about deceased individuals, upon request. I keep the information of living individuals very private.
Now, if the person in question is the deceased child of a living person, that is a slightly different story. I would feel okay displaying that child's information but not their parent's info. The child probably had an obituary in the newspaper that gave all of their facts publicly anyway.
In short, use your judgment and respect the privacy of others. I would follow the "Golden Rule" of do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If you would not like a particular fact about you published, why would you publish the same thing for another person?
What do you all think? Hit the "# Comments" link below this post and let us know.
I do not know of anything specifically, in a legal sense, but I would personally avoid publishing the information of anyone living. It is just not a good practice. Think of it like this...What is the first thing your credit card asks you when you call...what is your mother's maiden name. If you publish that information online, you are giving identity thieves a head start. Even obituaries tend to give away too much information in some cases.
Virginia law prevents the Department of Health from releasing any birth record for 100 years and any marriages, divorces or deaths for 50 years, unless you are an extremely close family member. I do not know of any other laws off the top of my head. I know you can get recent marriage licenses at county courthouses but they at least censor the Social Security number.
In general, if someone asks that you remove their information...I would. It is not worth pissing them off when they may have something you want down the road (photos, documents, etc.). I would personally be mad if someone published my kid's information online so I can agree with the person in question. As a matter of fact, I have never given anyone access to my personal Family Tree Maker file. I only share bits and pieces about deceased individuals, upon request. I keep the information of living individuals very private.
Now, if the person in question is the deceased child of a living person, that is a slightly different story. I would feel okay displaying that child's information but not their parent's info. The child probably had an obituary in the newspaper that gave all of their facts publicly anyway.
In short, use your judgment and respect the privacy of others. I would follow the "Golden Rule" of do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If you would not like a particular fact about you published, why would you publish the same thing for another person?
What do you all think? Hit the "# Comments" link below this post and let us know.
2 comments:
My family didn't want anything about living & recently deceased members even stored in my PC off line for fear of hackers & I.D. theft. So I have the Family Tree Maker 2008 w/first correction disk. Did you say a 2nd correction has been made to it? Haven't used program yet. The Soc Sec Death Index is updated weekly & makes it easy to find obituary data. Also, there is no such thing as a secure site even if encrypted & codes changed daily. It is not safe to bank online or to purchase online. Malware can sneek past the best antivirus software made. Great numbers of Russian, Chinese, & other foreign nations have a growing cottage industry of stealing wealth & I.D. from Western nations especially the USA. Even very young kids do it!
It is unlikely that anyone can get into you family tree file on your computer. I would advise against putting such info online but it should be safe in your own computer. I have never heard of a genealogy program being hacked.
As for Family Tree Maker 2008, the latest version is service pack three. You can see if you have it by following these steps:
"1. Open Family Tree Maker 2008
2. Click the "Help" menu item at the top of the program
3. Click "About Family Tree Maker…"
4. On the Product Information tab there is a version number. If the version number is lower than 17.0.0.965 you need to install Service Pack 3."
The SSDI is a great resource!
The main thing about being online is playing it safe and using your head. If anything makes you feel uncomfortable, there is probably something wrong with it. Stick to the sites that you know and trust.
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