Author Topic: Living people's details from tree found on internet  (Read 1042 times)

Offline josey

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Living people's details from tree found on internet
« on: Sunday 04 October 20 15:51 BST (UK) »
I was recently contacted by a first cousin - on my mother's side & shares her maiden surname - who was dismayed, not to say angry, to find that googling his own name brought up personal details of himself, his parents, spouses and children from 2 My Heritage trees. I supplied a .gedcom to one of the tree owners but it would have been in confidence. He must have given the data to someone else. Somehow, both the trees seem to have the cousin down as having died which is not the case. I have contacted both the tree owners via personal email in one case & My Heritage on the other with no response from either after a week. The cousin is worried not only about lack of privacy but about identity theft.

When I llok at this tree myself { I have permission from the tree owner I sent the data to] the only person of that surname I see is my mother [died 2005] so how come the cousin shows on the web?

Several questions;
1. Is it likely that the information has appeared because he is marked as deceased?
2. If I do manage to get a response from the tree owners and they delete cousin's entry, will that prevent the information appearing in the future or will the archived page still be found?
3. Would deleting the erroneous death stop the information being public?

Another question prompted by this. I recently dipped by toe into DNA analysis, received my results from Ancestry and uploaded them to Gedmatch. If I wish to upload a .gedcom to Gedmatch, do I have to remove living people myself first, or does Gedmatch have a facility to not show living people? My tree is on Rootmagic 7.

Thanks for any help.
Seeking: RC baptism Philip Murray Feb ish 1814 ? nr Chatham Kent.
IRE: Kik DRAY[EA], PURCELL, WHITE: Mea LYNCH: Tip MURRAY, SHEEDY: Wem ALLEN, ENGLISHBY; Dub PENROSE: Lim DUNN[E], FRAWLEY, WILLIAMS.
87th Regiment RIF: MURRAY
ENG; Marylebone HAYTER, TROU[W]SDALE, WILLIAMS,DUNEVAN Con HAMPTON, TREMELLING Wry CLEGG, HOLLAND, HORSEFIELD Coventry McGINTY
CAN; Halifax & Pictou: HOLLAND, WHITE, WILLIAMSON

Offline durhamgirl73

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Re: Living people from tree found on website
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 04 October 20 16:18 BST (UK) »
I recently had a reply to an email regarding our dna match - they sent me a list of people associated with this couple (ggg grandparents) - I saw that not only was I on this list, plus my siblings and parents  (which can be found through FREEBMD etc like how we all search) BUT they had my full birthday, plus my siblings and parents - I asked them where they got this information from but I haven't got a response yet!

I thought that banks etc will now have to come up with different security questions because now anyone can get this information - eg date of birth, mothers maiden name, last school you went to, etc.

Online Girl Guide

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Re: Living people from tree found on website
« Reply #2 on: Monday 05 October 20 09:20 BST (UK) »
This is one of the reasons why I have never put any family trees on the internet.  Even if I did I wouldn't include any living people on it.

Depending on your age you would either stop at grandparent level or great grandparent level.

Another reason I haven't bothered is sheer laziness  ::)  Some of the trees are so big it would take ages to list them all.
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Knowling: Devon, London
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White: Bristol
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Offline chris_49

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Re: Living people from tree found on website
« Reply #3 on: Monday 05 October 20 09:52 BST (UK) »
I have trees with living people on the net - for one thing, some relatives like to see themselves on my tree - even if they can only see themselves as Living Person. In the case of recently deceased people, their deaths are either not shown at all, or are only on my GR tree, which hardly anybody can see, and is only exported to Ancestry periodically.

But this thread has made me think again. No use stealing the identity of somebody over 100, but worthwhile for a person who could conceivably be living. At the very least I'll remove those year of death records before my next export.

I don't know what he OP can do if nobody replies - but yet another reason not to use MyHeritage.
Skelcey (Skelsey Skelcy Skeley Shelsey Kelcy Skelcher) - Warks, Yorks, Lancs <br />Hancox - Warks<br />Green - Warks<br />Draper - Warks<br />Lynes - Warks<br />Hudson - Warks<br />Morris - Denbs Mont Salop <br />Davies - Cheshire, North Wales<br />Fellowes - Cheshire, Denbighshire<br />Owens - Cheshire/North Wales<br />Hicks - Cornwall<br />Lloyd and Jones (Mont)<br />Rhys/Rees (Mont)


Online Nic.

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Re: Living people from tree found on website
« Reply #4 on: Monday 05 October 20 10:32 BST (UK) »
I had a similar problem with GenesReunited a few years ago.  I was shown with full date of birth and the street I was born in along with all close family members.  The tree owner had been given the details from an estranged family member.  The only way I got the information removed was by constantly contacting Genes Admin and reporting the tree eventually the tree was removed.  I now regularly check that this hasn’t happened again.

Offline josey

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Re: Living people from tree found on website
« Reply #5 on: Monday 05 October 20 10:38 BST (UK) »
This is one of the reasons why I have never put any family trees on the internet.
But I haven't put a family tree on the internet - I sent some data to a 4th cousin who has put it on My Heritage & also gave it to someone else who has done the same. The former gave me access to the tree & I cannot find the cousin who is angry, as I said the only person of that surname I can find in his tree is my mother yet the cousin's information is on the net.....purporting to come from the 2 My Heritage trees.

As chris_49 says, no replies to my original questions about how to remove cousin's data from the net.

ADDED: - Till Nic's suggestion - I'll try contacting My Heritage directly although cousin did that & was told only tree  owners can remove info or edit it; still no reply from treeowners themselves.
Seeking: RC baptism Philip Murray Feb ish 1814 ? nr Chatham Kent.
IRE: Kik DRAY[EA], PURCELL, WHITE: Mea LYNCH: Tip MURRAY, SHEEDY: Wem ALLEN, ENGLISHBY; Dub PENROSE: Lim DUNN[E], FRAWLEY, WILLIAMS.
87th Regiment RIF: MURRAY
ENG; Marylebone HAYTER, TROU[W]SDALE, WILLIAMS,DUNEVAN Con HAMPTON, TREMELLING Wry CLEGG, HOLLAND, HORSEFIELD Coventry McGINTY
CAN; Halifax & Pictou: HOLLAND, WHITE, WILLIAMSON

Online melba_schmelba

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Re: Living people from tree found on website
« Reply #6 on: Monday 05 October 20 11:46 BST (UK) »
It sounds like a flaw in MyHeritage's software that allows the data on MyHeritage trees to be indexed by search engines, pretty sure Ancestry's are all encrypted in a secure connection, as are 23andme so they don't have that problem. Although I have also seen living people, presumably marked as deceased, but with no death dates on several Ancestry trees.

Online Tickettyboo

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Re: Living people's details from tree found on internet
« Reply #7 on: Monday 05 October 20 13:24 BST (UK) »
Not a site I use, but out of interest I looked to see what they say is the policy for showing living people on a tree.
https://www.myheritage.com/help-center/en/article/how-do-i-hide-living-relatives-in-my-family-tree

Reading through that, I'd guess that if you contact them they would ensure that the offending tree has the living people shown as such and no details shown publically.

I am unsure if though not shown publically the info would still be available should they wish to share a link to the tree.


ADDED
Sorry meant to say that if the info has already be indexed on search engines I'd say it was very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle and get those removed.

Boo

Offline Guy Etchells

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Re: Living people's details from tree found on internet
« Reply #8 on: Monday 05 October 20 13:29 BST (UK) »
I was recently contacted by a first cousin - on my mother's side & shares her maiden surname - who was dismayed, not to say angry, to find that googling his own name brought up personal details of himself, his parents, spouses and children from 2 My Heritage trees. I supplied a .gedcom to one of the tree owners but it would have been in confidence. He must have given the data to someone else. Somehow, both the trees seem to have the cousin down as having died which is not the case. I have contacted both the tree owners via personal email in one case & My Heritage on the other with no response from either after a week. The cousin is worried not only about lack of privacy but about identity theft.

When I llok at this tree myself { I have permission from the tree owner I sent the data to] the only person of that surname I see is my mother [died 2005] so how come the cousin shows on the web?

The simple answer is if the person is dead their details may have been added to the MyHeritage database via records rather than trees. A more complicated answer is is due to the way trees and sections of trees are blended together when a person accepts a match rather than jotting down the details looking up the records and judging whether they are the correct person or not

Several questions;
1. Is it likely that the information has appeared because he is marked as deceased?

Possibly but not necessarily so.

2. If I do manage to get a response from the tree owners and they delete cousin's entry, will that prevent the information appearing in the future or will the archived page still be found?

That depends whether the page has been archived by the likes of the Internet Archive or not. If it is only archived by MyHeritage it should not appear again, but there are instances when even this could happen

3. Would deleting the erroneous death stop the information being public?

In the UK, no never, a death, like a birth or a marriage is a public record and can be seen and a certificate purchased by anyone in the world.

Another question prompted by this. I recently dipped by toe into DNA analysis, received my results from Ancestry and uploaded them to Gedmatch. If I wish to upload a .gedcom to Gedmatch, do I have to remove living people myself first, or does Gedmatch have a facility to not show living people? My tree is on Rootmagic 7.

Thanks for any help.

If you upload anything to the internet it is your responsibility to remove any information you consider private. Third party company's will in most cases try not to reveal personal information of living persons, but mistakes do happen and sometimes such information will appear online.
Cheers
Guy
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