Can someone tell me how and why someone is changing the privacy settings of children?

Question

Can one of the leaders please try to answer this one for me?  Have tryed to get an answer on this before but, If, I remember right the answer I got is you can not put some one on the Private privacy setting if they are over 13.  I'm not reading the guidelines for the Private privacy setting like that.  It says you can put a few people on that setting if the person wishes to be not under public eyes.  Who ever it is that is changing them are not on any of their trusted lists and I am the profile manager of all of them.  They have all been changed several times.  They are also changing numerous other privacy settings for other family members as well. Once again, I am the profile manager on them as well and they are all whether children or adults are all living.  Who ever it is I wish they would stop doing it.  This is suppose to be at the profile managers discresion I thought.  Thanks, in advance for your answer.  

Is anyone else having any trouble with someone changing your privacy settings for you?  Would sure advise you check your's if you have not...!!!

Answer 1

Hi Barbara,

Unlisted

No public information. Name won't appear in search results or directories. Not an option for Wiki Genealogists.

Private

Strictly limited public information. Only the Trusted List can view or edit the full profile. The default for living people and non-living people when added as nuclear relatives of living people.

For kids, I think you should use Unlisted privacy.  I don't know how the settings are being changed, but please check the changes page to see if it indicates what happened.  

 

Comments

Thanks Kitty!  So is there an age limit set on unlisted profiles for people who are not genealogists?  I really hate to go that route but, that may be the only way I can keep someone from tampering with those profiles and changing them so just anyone can see them.  How do you check the changes page on privacy settings??  Secondly, have already changed them again so, "If there is a way to check those changes is it still possible to check after I have changed them??  What age limit is there on Private because, I don't really see one?  

Your answer still does not tell me how someone is changing all my privacy settings when they are not (either one):   A) Not the profile manager (nor) B) Not on the Trusted List?

Answer 2

Hi Barbara,

 

To check the changes to the profile click the changes tab at the top of the profile page beside privacy.

This is what I found about anything concerning persons under the age of 13.

 Unlisted

This is for profiles that you want to keep entirely hidden from everyone but the Trusted List. Unlisted names do not appear in search results, surname index pages, or automatic matches.

Unlisted is the default setting when you add a child under 13. Please note that regardless of the Privacy Level, profiles of young children should only be used for placeholders and should not include Personally Identifiable Information.

Unlisted is not an option for non-living people or anyone born more than 100 years ago.

It is also not an option for profiles of active members. Wiki Genealogists cannot keep their own profile Unlisted. If you, as an active WikiTree member, do not want your name to appear anywhere click here.

Answer 3

I did encounter a couple of cases of a privacy setting being changed from Public to Open.  It happened when I edited the profiles of people born in 1814 or 1815 for whom the 200-year clock had expired, and the system automatically set them to Open since that is required for 200 year old profiles.  I don't know if perhaps there is a similar check done for profiles with no death date, but a birth date less than 13 years old.  In that case the default setting would be Unlisted.  I can't think of any other cases where system-generated changes might occur, and other than those, I agree with you that changes should not be happening.  Other members not on a trusted list should not be able to change privacy settings.  Your issue sounds as if the changes are occurring only for profiles of living people, and the settings are being changed from Private to something else.  Is that true, and is it also the case that there is no entry in the changes log to explain it?  Is there some other common characteristic about the profiles in question?

Comments

I want to thank all of you for your answers.  Yes Dennis everything you said is right. They are all people who are living.  They are all family members.  Most are children but there has been changes to adult privacy settings as well.  I am not referring to any profiles that do not have dates.  None of them are members.  Nor, are there any of them who are geneaologists.  Yes, most of them were set at private and changed over to a different setting.  I just checked to see if they showed up on the changes log and (no) they are not showing up there.  So, something strange is going on.  These same profiles and others as well have been changed several times.  I have not given any one permission to have access to change anything on these profiles.  You can check on my list of approvals for people to Join the Trusted list and you will see I have only given four or five people an approval on one profile each and those profiles are not any of the ones that were changed.  I would also estimate they have been changed monthly for the last three months.  Unless, I misunderstand things you are saying that even on the unlisted profiles those on the Trusted list can change things even privacy settings.  But, let me make it perfectly clear none of my profiles have ever had the privacy settings changed on the four or five profiles that I have approved to be on that setting in the entire time I have been a genealogist on WikiTree.  I love WikiTree.       Please answer this.  I thought the only way someone should be able to change anything on profiles I am profile manager on without being on the trusted list is:  if, the profile is of a person who is not living (or) a person that is over 100 years old (or) is a person who has an open profile.  Is that last statement completely correct (or) am I missing something??  If, I am correct in this knowledge, then can one of the leaders check into this and let me know what you find out?  Is there a way to find out if anyone else is having their Privacy Settings changed by someone other than anyone who should have permission to do so?  I hate to be a pain to everyone but, I feel this is a very important issue.  Thanks everyone!  Overall, I feel we have a really great bunch of people here on WikiTree.  I love WikiTree!  Barbara Jean

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Hi Barbara, I have sent you an email requesting some profile ID's to look into it for you.

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Maybe it is long since forgotten, but I would love to see a public response about what was going on here, because my understanding is that this sort of change of living Privacy of any kind by any non-manager would be a Sysop capability only.

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There were no specifics mentioned in the original post so I can only answer generally. Yes, the short answer is, Privacy levels can only be changed by Managers and Sysops. Incorrect dates that are changed, though, can cause some automatic changes (see below).

I have looked at the profiles managed by Barbara and can see no incorrect Privacy settings (bar one, I added an estimated DOB of before 1785 and the profile then automatically changed from Public to Open).

As to Privacy changes in general, most has been adequately covered in the various responses. As mentioned, if a profile has a DOB added where there was none (or changed from less than 200 years ago) then the profile is automatically changed to Open. Similarly if a profile has a date of birth added (or changed) to something of 100 years ago or less, then (if there is no death date) it is automatically made Private. These automatic changes will occur regardless if a person is on the Trusted List or not.

Generally changes to Privacy levels can only be made by the manager. Sysops can make changes to any profile and so so when a profile is found that should be Open or should be Private. If there are any other concerns about privacy changes specific examples should be given (if the Profile is of a likely living individual a Sysop should be contacted directly, for privacy reasons).

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Thanks Paul.

One thing that occurred to me is that if Barbara was adding family members, like parents and spouses, then depending on their Privacy settings at the time of addition, sometimes the Privacy of the attached profile will suddenly jump upon attachment.

This is a long-standing tech glitch. I have seen my Yellow profiles change to Red as a default, after I made a tree connection to it in a certain way, for example.

And commonly Green profiles will change to White as a default, in the same manner.