Gggrrrrrr!! Private Tree on Ancestry photos copied

[Cfdm]

 I don't think  there is anyway to stop this.  As long as anyone else can access  your page, private our not, you always take a chance, that somewhere down the line, this will happen.  And there is really no way to stop it.

Also, there is nothing to stop them from copying a photo, onto their own computer,  and uploading it onto a different site like Myheritage,  or even back onto Ancestry, without any trail at all leading back to you, by using "Save image As", in Windows.

If your biggest complaint is people posting your photos without attributing them to you, why don't you try watermarking the online image itself,  before you post it?  That way your name is associated with it, and it would be too  much trouble for the average person to Photoshop it out.  If those you trust, want an unmarked  copy,  than they will have to contact you directly.

[bearsome]

I like Ancestry as a site - I've found it one of the most straightforward genealogy sites. I've never put photos on, though, and probably wouldn't have. Now, I definitely won't, so thank you for the warning, and I'm sorry you've had this problem.

[alanmack]

If your biggest complaint is people posting your photos without attributing them to you, why don't you try watermarking the online image itself,  before you post it?  That way your name is associated with it, and it would be too  much trouble for the average person to Photoshop it out.  If those you trust, want an unmarked  copy,  than they will have to contact you directly.

Mrs T and others,
                         You might also try putting an invisible watermark on your images and say they're watermarked visibly. I've used a tiny freeware Java thingy called Hallucinate. It works a treat. 
I'm sure other tools are available if you don't run Java.

Alan

[mrs.tenacious]

Thanks for the replies, everyone - valid and helpful comments from all of you. I understand that once photos are shared with anyone they are 'out there' but I was naive enough to think I could control the extent a little!

I think I shall still remove photos from my Ancestry tree, and contact both parties I mentioned earlier with a polite request to not post them publicly, or pass them on without my permission.  I may consider 'watermaking' them for the future, too.

Disappointed that my request for the photo not to be copied without my permission (right underneath the photo) was ignored though.  Perhaps I should have typed it in red and in capital letters!

Perhaps I should also suggest that Ancestry could include this issue in a protocols guidelines section on their site.   

[smudwhisk]

I think you may be able to restrict photos on private trees from being available through the search by changing the setting in your site preferences - activity preferences - deselect personal research activities.  Whether this applies to anything that ends up on Mundia, I couldn't say.  Worth a try.  

[IgorStrav]

Further to all the comments here, may I add a warning that other people may also save to their tree your personal stories about your ancestors, and once you have given access to one person, you have lost control.

I have gone through the feelings of anger when "my" relatives' photos have been copied to others' trees - because they are "their" relatives too.  And of course photos come back in exchange, as has already been said here.

But a personal memory copied to another's tree is rather more upsetting.

[clayton bradley]

I exchanged emails with someone on Ancestry about a shared line and was rather surprised to find he had chopped up my emails into stories and added them to his tree. If I had known he planned to do this I would have tried to make my offerings a bit less telegraphese. I suppose it's flattering but I think it would have been polite of him to ask me if I minded, claytonbradley

[sonofthom]

What a great idea - I have watermarked my photos today that haven't already been "pinched". With relatives a generation or two back I can understand that the person taking the photo may have a legitimate connection without me knowing who they are, although the lack of politeness in failing to contact me firstly is annoying. However even my parents photos have been purloined by people I have no knowledge of and indeed in some trees they have been relocated to America, despite them having always lived in Scotland. I think that some people just collect names without bothering too much about the research.

On a more positive note a photo of my mother with a favourite aunt that I put up led to a grand daughter of the favourite aunt contacting me and we have been in touch regularly ever since, so it is worth putting up the photos. Alex.

[iluleah]

I exchanged emails with someone on Ancestry about a shared line and was rather surprised to find he had chopped up my emails into stories and added them to his tree. If I had known he planned to do this I would have tried to make my offerings a bit less telegraphese. I suppose it's flattering but I think it would have been polite of him to ask me if I minded, claytonbradley

Now that is beyond acceptable and I have to say something similar happened to me several years ago which is why I do not give personal information out now if someone contacts me, I am very guarded because of that experience

.....and I have never put any of my information online or trees and NEVER would