ETHICS-IN-GENEALOGY-L Archives

Archiver > ETHICS-IN-GENEALOGY > 2003-08 > 1061661246


From: "Joan Best" <>
Subject: Re: [Ethics] Identity theft and such - Stalking???
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 10:54:17 -0700
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20030823114001.01c47420@mail.earthlink.net>


Christine,
I don't know what state you live in, but I believe in most states property
records and other such records are open to the public. They are also
obtainable from title companies. [If you wanted to disguise your identity
as an owner of land, it could be put in a trust, controlled by you, but
without anything identifiable in the name of the trust.

A person could make it hard for someone to find them or information about
them, but it would be difficult. You would have to never have credit, or
fill out forms for anything, entering a contest, taking out a bank account,
sending your kid to school. [Some of these, banks and schools, now have an
option to opt out of the records being made available to others, however, if
you fail to opt out, the information is available].

Again, I don't know what state you live in so I can't comment on the
accuracy of your statements about your state's privacy laws, but my sense is
that you do not have correct information. Perhaps you could cite the
statute to which you refer.
The other Joan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christine" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Ethics] Identity theft and such - Stalking???


| Joan,
|
| And what about stalking? Should I give up my drivers license and my right
| to vote just to keep my location private? Do I have to give up
| participating in society in order to protect my family? Do the _laws of
my
| state_ mean nothing as it regards the release of my data?
|
| These are pertinent questions. There is no way for you to find out who
has
| gotten your data from the People Finder. In my state, the agency
| responsible for maintaining drivers records is not permitted to release my
| information to a third party without my knowledge. Voters records are
only
| permitted to be used for bona fide political activities, by law. Any data
| released for purposes of research has to be stripped of personally
| identifying data, according to state statutes. You have to prove a lawful
| reason for seeing a property record and then only in the county clerks
| office, and even then the clerk won't let you copy it. These are the laws
| in my state. Is My Family, Inc., allowed to apparently sidestep those
| regulations just because the data is attached to a genealogy web site?
And
| what of the Ancestry.com terms of service, where they specifically state
| that data about living people will be supressed in posted gedcom files to
| _PROTECT PRIVACY_? Why bother if they are going to sell people's data in
| the People Finder? And if I object, whether you agree with my reasons or
| not, do I not have the right to have my data removed since the data
| concerns ME? Do I not have the right to know where the data came from so
| that I can get it removed from that side? Should I not have the right to
| know who has requested my data, as I would in the case of my drivers
record
| being released to a third party?
|
| A proven record of historical criminal conduct in relation to a specific
db
| does not have to be shown in order to raise a red flag and ask questions
| about the wisdom, propriety, and legality of the db. Criminal behavior
| changes and evolves to suit the environment. Apparent logical
| inconsistencies in corporate philosophy are fair game for questions and
| discussion. It only takes one bad guy to find the db to make it
| unsafe. Just because it hasn't yet happened (to anyone's knowledge)
| doesn't mean it won't, and is it not prudent to consider the possibility
| BEFORE making such data available, BEFORE the worst case scenario happens?
|
| Regards,
| Christine
|
| At 12:14 PM 8/23/2003 -0400, you wrote:
| >In a message dated 8/23/2003 11:37:28 AM Eastern Standard Time,
| > writes:
| >
| > > It isn't a little thing. It isn't a fuss about nothing. If something
| > > happens to my daughter because My Family, Inc., used my personal data
in a
| > > manner which appears not to be permitted under the law in my state, is
My
| > > Family, Inc., going to pay damages for releasing it? Cases similar to
| > this
| > > scenario are pending in the courts right now, where crime victims are
| > > stalked by their perps after they get out of prison, after having
taken
| > > measures to ensure the privacy of their locations, but agencies
released
| > > information without the knowledge or permission of the victim, who in
at
| > > least one case was killed.
| > > Christine
| > >
| >
| >Christine-
| >
| >The point is that NO ONE EVER has shown that information regarding
identity
| >theft was gleaned from a genealogy website. Identity theft is a big
business
| >and those folks don't go around aimlessly searching the Net to find a
| >genealogy
| >site where they might, by chance, find some detail they need to know
about an
| >individual whose identity they want to steal.
| >
| >They gain the information they need in a much more direct way--often
having
| >employees of a company who are in cahoots with them feeding them the SS
| >numbers
| >and credit card info on their potential victims. We had a case not long
ago
| >in the Philly area where an employee of Red Cross was gaining the info
from
| >blood doner accounts and selling it to an identity theft ring. This is
the
| >typical situation--not someone randomly finding some info on a genealogy
| >site and
| >deciding "gee, I could assume that person's identity for illegal
purposes."
| >It just isn't happening that way.
| >
| >Joan
|
|

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