ETHICS-IN-GENEALOGY-L Archives

Archiver > ETHICS-IN-GENEALOGY > 2003-08 > 1061567566


From: Christine <>
Subject: Re: [Ethics] Anyone here besides me?
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:52:46 -0500
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20030821202335.01c47f20@mail.earthlink.net><142.179f97bd.2c76c8da@aol.com><5.1.0.14.2.20030821202335.01c47f20@mail.earthlink.net>
In-Reply-To: <20030822093957.GA22454@f-prot.com>


In the state I live in, improper publication of records for voter
registration or drivers license is against the law. I have a huge problem
with the release of this information about living people. It is not
"freely available" here, as My Family, Inc., seems to put forward. Voter
registration records are only to be used for bona fide political
purposes. Drivers' records are only to be used for legitimate purposes
involving driving a motor vehicle, and if you request a record on someone
other than yourself, you cannot have it without the subject's
knowledge. The records may be "public records" but they are not "freely
available" to anyone who wants them, and commercial or business use of this
information is specifically prohibited. In addition, in my state, my
identity is my property, and it cannot be used or disseminated without my
prior written consent. Our national Constitution provides that I have a
right to be secure in my person and papers - the unrestricted dissemination
of my identity is not conducive to being secure in my person and papers.

In the United States, we value our privacy very much. I pay extra to have
a non-published telephone number, so I don't expect my street address to be
available to just anyone who wants it and pays a fee and has no business
having the information. Such public release of personal information
jeopardizes people in a variety of ways (stalkers, identity theft, to name
just a few) and should not be done. My Family, Inc., has a Terms of
Service page for this database, listing ways that the information is not to
be used, but I don't see that there is any way that most of it can be enforced.

As to genealogical information, when publishing such information, data
about living people is supposed to be supressed to protect their
privacy. Data about the living is not "freely available" here. This is
from Ancestry.com's Terms of Service page:
We will not edit or monitor user provided content, with the exception that,
to promote privacy, an automated filtering tool will be used to suppress
and omit from display information submitted to the Ancestry World Tree
which appears in our best judgment to pertain to a living person. [emphasis
added]

I find your perspective to be sad. I could not ever live in such a country.

Christine

At 09:39 AM 8/22/2003 +0000, you wrote:
> > Have you seen the new My Family People Finder in which you can search for
> > any living person without even having to know what state they live
> in? And
> > you can get their age, their full address (even if their phone number is
> > non-published) and the names of anyone living with them.
> >
> > What do you think of this new feature?
>
>Hmmm... I live in a country where such information is considered public,
>and freely
>accessible. There are public, free web sites where you can obtain any of
>the following information:
>
> name
> birth date
> national ID number (similar to the US SSN, but more widely used)
> address
> phone number (unless it is unlisted)
> information on anyone else libing in the same building or household.
>
>I don't think anyone here sees any problem with the availability of this
>information.
>In addition, the (almost) complete genealogy information for the entire living
>population of the country is also available on the web, free of charge.
>
>Again, no problems.
>
>I guess this shows that opinions on what is considered acceptable differ
>from one
>part of the world to another.
>
>-frisk

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