Help:Privacy Policy

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Date of Last Revision: 27 July 2023. Please check back regularly to keep informed of updates to this policy.

This Privacy Policy outlines the Personal Information about you that Interesting.com, Inc. ("we" or "us") collects, uses, and stores on WikiTree.com ("WikiTree" or "Website"). Your Personal Information is any information about you as an identified or identifiable person.

We are committed to protecting the Personal Information entrusted to us and to providing visitors and WikiTree members with a clear understanding of what information we collect and how that information is stored and processed. We also facilitate our members’ full control over the information provided to us, to allow members to change, remove or restrict the use of the information they have provided on WikiTree.

Use of WikiTree is governed by this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

Contents

Overview

WikiTree is intended for genealogy collaboration. Use of this site for any other purpose is unauthorized and prohibited. As a genealogy website, WikiTree stores extensive Personal Information.

Each member, prior to using WikiTree, must agree to our Terms of Service, and confirm their understanding that posting information on WikiTree is the equivalent of making such information available to the public. Although we will endeavor to protect your information and promptly respond to your requests to control the storage, processing and use of your Personal Information, you alone are responsible for the information you share about yourself and other people. Members must understand that sharing information about living people must be done with great caution.

Personal Information We Store

The following information can be stored in profiles of living people:

  • Name
  • Sex at Birth
  • Dates and locations of events
  • E-mail address and password
  • Family relationships
  • Unlimited biographical and source information

All of the above is optional on your personal account profile, except an e-mail address and password. Your real name is preferred for your account profile, especially your surname (family name), but you can use "Anonymous" or initials.

If you submit Personal Information through WikiTree, people you allow in your profile's Trusted List will have access to all the information except your password. You can control which people can access your information through your profile's Trusted List but those people could forward this information to other users or non-users. There are also other risks, including those described below. Do not post especially sensitive information on WikiTree.

Some Personal Information about you will be visible to the public so that relatives can find you. Public information may include name, primary photograph, decade of birth (not the exact date), and other information described in our privacy settings.

You may update or remove any of your Personal Information on the Website at any time. You may request that we remove your Personal Information by contacting us, with the understanding that we may maintain an archive or back-up of the information not on the Website.

Additional Information You May Upload

Information on Living Family Members

Members can add personal information about their living family members and personal friends, however:

  • You must not share information or create a profile for a living person without that person's explicit, prior permission, except in the two very limited cases described on Help:Living_People.
  • Profiles of living people who are not WikiTree members must use our "Unlisted" privacy setting.
  • You must not share information about a living child under 16 without parental consent.
  • You must not share any information about a living child under 13 unless you are their parent and legal guardian. Even profiles of children created by parents should be considered placeholders only and not contain any sensitive information.
  • You must not share any information about DNA tests for other living people.

GEDCOMs

You can upload personal information via the GEnealogical Data COMmunication (GEDCOM) format. GEDCOMs are automatically deleted after you are no longer using them, or on demand.

Photos

You can upload family photos and connect them with person profiles.

Photos that include living people may be shared publicly but must not be linked to the name or personal identification of non-members and must not include "Exif metadata" that could be used to identify a living person other than yourself.

Photos can be removed and deleted at any time by the member who uploaded the photo or upon request of any person that appears in the photo or whose Personal Information is stored in photo metadata.

Comments and Member Interactions

You are invited to comment on photos, person profiles, in our discussion forum, in social media, and in various other private and public communications with other WikiTree members. Comments and messages cannot always be deleted, but your name and other personally identifiable information can be removed from them.

DNA Test Information

Although WikiTree does not store original genetic data, you can enter information about DNA tests you have taken and conclusions made from such tests. You may not store any DNA-related data that can be used to personally identify other living people. Only WikiTree members are permitted to upload and control their personal DNA test information to WikiTree and only in connection with that member’s agreement to WikiTree's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

E-Cards

If you send a WikiTree image as an e-card, your e-mail address, the recipients' e-mail address, and your message will be saved so that we can deliver and display your card. After 30 days this is all automatically deleted.

Tracking

As a "wiki", genealogy collaboration on WikiTree entails recording and displaying changes that you have made to profiles and other contributions to the Website. Details of changes to private profiles are only visible to the Trusted List. The summaries of these changes cannot be deleted, but your name and other personally identifiable information can be removed from them.

We store IP addresses in various log files. We could not protect our community against vandals and spammers without this tracking.

Personal Data Received from Children

The information and services described on WikiTree are not intended for children under the age of 13. Children under the age of 16 may only use WikiTree with parental consent. If we learn that we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 16 without parental consent we will delete that information.

Security

WikiTree provides a secure server to protect your Personal Information from being viewed by an outside user. The technology transmits and receives scrambled data, which is decoded on the server side. We have implemented commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, or alteration.

However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat our measures or use your Personal Information for improper purposes. You acknowledge that you make your Personal Information available publicly through WikiTree and that you use the website at your own risk. You must also guard against unauthorized access by protecting your password and access to your computer or other devices.

In the event that Personal Information is compromised as a result of a breach of security, we will promptly provide notifications to our members via e-mail notice or through conspicuous posting of such notice on WikiTree, as determined by us in our sole discretion. We reserve the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to our users, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Privacy Policy.

Legal Bases for Collecting and Processing Data

By agreeing to our Terms of Service, you have consented to the processing of your data as set forth herein and in the Terms of Service. We rely on your explicit consent to process your information. You have the right to withdraw your consent for future processing, but any processing that took place prior to the withdrawal of your consent shall have been processed with consent.

We may also process your personal data on your direction, to perform services you have requested through your use of WikiTree. Additionally, we have an interest in processing data regarding members in order to further business goals and improve member services.

Finally, we process your data in order to further the goal of online genealogy collaboration for historical research purposes. Therefore, although we will do everything we can to ensure the safety and security of your Personal Information, the collection and sharing of your Personal Information is necessary to link individuals with their family connections. Please take these considerations into account when you decide to use WikiTree and to share your personal data on our website.

Accessing, Deleting and Correcting Personal Information

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) you have the right to access Personal Information that we have collected about you and to review how data is processed.

Anyone may:

  • Opt out of any future contacts from us.
  • See what Personal Information we have about you, if any. This can be done by accessing your profile, which we can help you do.
  • Change or correct any Personal Information. This can be done by accessing your profile as a member.
  • Have us delete any Personal Information, with the understanding that we may maintain an archive or back-up of the information not on the Website. This can be done with the "PRIVACY TAKE-DOWN REQUEST" form linked from the bottom of the profile.
  • Obtain a copy of the Personal Information about you. This is best done with a GEDCOM export since it creates a portable file that can be imported into almost any major genealogy program or website.
  • Express any concern you have about our use of your Personal Information.

You can e-mail info@wikitree.com for help with any of the above.

We can also help you delete information you have entered about other living people if the information is not being shared with other family members. For example, if you create a profile for your sibling and your sibling becomes a WikiTree member, you can delete your personal profile but you cannot delete your sibling's profile or profiles of other family members if your sibling is on their profiles' Trusted Lists.

Information that you have publicly shared about non-living people using the "Public" and "Open" privacy levels can be corrected if there are mistakes but it cannot be deleted unless it reveals Personal Information about living people.

E-Mail and Contact Preferences

We will use your e-mail address to complete the signup process and we will use your friends' and relatives' e-mail addresses to invite them to join you if you choose to provide them. By providing an e-mail address to WikiTree you consent to our using the e-mail address to send you service-related notices, including notices required by law, in lieu of postal mail. You may not opt out of service-related e-mails. We may also use your e-mail address to send you other messages, including changes to WikiTree features. If you do not want to receive such e-mail messages, you may opt out by changing your account settings or by sending mail to the following postal address:

Interesting.com, Inc.
282 Katonah Avenue, #1082
Katonah, NY 10536

Data Collection

We only collect Personal Information if members provide it to us voluntarily. Personal Information collected on WikiTree may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which WikiTree (and its affiliates and agents) maintains facilities. By using WikiTree you consent to the storage, processing, and transfer of your Personal Information outside your country.

We collect general, statistical information about visitors to our site for the purpose of facilitating communication and conducting business between WikiTree and users of the site. We use this information solely for internal purposes, such as to improve WikiTree.

Use of Cookies

We make use of "cookies". A cookie is a small text file stored by a website on a user's hard drive which contains information about the user. You can set your browser to decline or accept cookies, though if you choose not to accept cookies, some parts of WikiTree may function less efficiently.

All visitors to WikiTree, including non-members, may get cookies for:

  • Google Analytics, which uses cookies to enable traffic analysis that helps us improve the Website (more about Google Analytics below).
  • Google's advertising network.
  • Advertising-related cookies from MyHeritage.com and Findmypast.

Members may not get the advertising-related cookies but will get:

  • Session cookies. These are required for login. They store an ID with no Personal Information. These cookies go away when you close your browser unless you select "remember me" when logging-in.
  • Facebook, Google+ and social sharing cookies. There are certain pages where we invite sharing, e.g. "cousin bait" advice pages. We intentionally removed these sharing buttons from most profile pages to limit tracking.
  • A small number of other cookies that may hold one of your preferences. For example, there's a "watchedlist_order" cookie which can store your desired sort order for your Watchlist and "disableLocationSuggestions" to turn off the as-you-type location suggestions. These cookies don't hold any Personal Information. They are just flags or simple bits of data that manipulate how the website looks and acts.

Surveys and E-Mail

We may request information through surveys or other requests for registration, which users may choose to participate in on a voluntary basis. Information gathered may be used for marketing and promotional purposes or to notify you of new content, among other uses. If you e-mail us with questions or comments, we may use your Personal Information in order to respond to you. We may also share your information with a third party to assist in our response. We may file your comments for future reference, or we may discard the information after we have reviewed it.

Interactive Features/Facebook

While WikiTree strives to protect users’ personal data and privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose online through interactive features such as forums, message boards, chat rooms, or similar services that are specifically designed to be visible to other users. You should be aware that any Personal Information you choose to submit via those media can be read, collected, and used by other participants and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the Personal Information you choose to submit when you engage in such activities.

WikiTree may also use Facebook features and tools, including pixel tags added to WikiTree, that allow data about actions of visitors to be sent to Facebook. Facebook’s use of such data is governed by Facebook’s Data Use Policy.

Links to Third-Party Sites

WikiTree contains links to sites owned or operated by third parties. We do not control outside sites and are not responsible for their content. Inclusion of links to an outside site does not imply any endorsement of the material on the site or, unless expressly stated otherwise, any sponsorship, affiliation, or association with its owner, operator, or sponsor.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting to help us understand, in aggregate, the age, gender and interests of visitors to WikiTree. This Google Analytics tool does not reveal your name or other identifying information to us. Further, we do not combine the information collected through use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. The information received from Google Analytics is used only to improve WikiTree, and the type of information displayed to WikiTree visitors so we can better serve those interested in WikiTree. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to WikiTree by using Google Analytics’ Opt-out Browser Add-on, available here.

Information Sharing with Service Providers

We hire other companies to provide services on our behalf. Any company performing services on our behalf will be subject to contractual obligations governing data protection that adhere to the policies contained herein and applicable laws. In addition, we will provide these companies only with the information they need to deliver the services, and, where applicable, such companies will be contractually prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

Release of Information Due to Legal or Regulatory Process

In certain circumstances, if we believe it is reasonably necessary, we may release specific information about you or your account to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order, or in other special cases, such as an attempted breach of WikiTree security, without notice to you.

We reserve the right to collect and share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; as appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Service or investigate potential or actual violations of the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy; take precautions against liability; to protect the security or integrity of our Website; to exercise or protect the rights, property, or the rights and personal safety of users or others; or for other legitimate purposes.

Information Sharing if WikiTree is Acquired

We may also assign or transfer the information we collect to a third party in the event that WikiTree is acquired by or merged with a third party entity or of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or similar situation.

Copyright

This site and all information and images within it are copyrighted, unless otherwise noted. US copyright law protects all materials on this site. All rights reserved.

Consent to Transfer of Data

The Website and services are void where prohibited. If you are accessing the Website from outside the United States, your use of the Website is governed by US law, you are transferring your Personal Information to the United States, and you consent to that transfer.

Disclaimer

The information on this site is provided "as is," and no representations or warranties of any kind are made regarding it. Our policy is not to be applied in any manner contrary to applicable law or governmental regulation.

How to Contact Us

Should you have any questions or concerns about this policy please contact us at info@wikitree.com.

Updates

We reserve the right to make changes to this policy at any time. All updates will be posted on this page. Your continued use of WikiTree following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept these changes.



This page was last modified 14:34, 28 August 2023. This page has been accessed 177,348 times.