Concerns About Linksynergy Use and Privacy on WikiTree

Question

Hello WikiTree Community and Administrators,

I am writing to express my concerns regarding the use of Linksynergy tracking on WikiTree links and how it potentially impacts user privacy.

I recently noticed that some links on WikiTree contain 'linksynergy', which I understand is part of an affiliate program used for tracking and monetization purposes. Could anyone clarify how these links are being used and what data is being collected?

I am concerned about how this affects my privacy and the privacy of other users. Tracking user activity without clear consent can be intrusive. I've reviewed the privacy policy, but I would appreciate more specific information regarding the integration of these links and any data they collect.

I believe transparency is crucial, and I respectfully request detailed information on this matter. I also invite comments from other community members who might share these concerns or have insights.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I look forward to your response and a constructive discussion.

Comments

Editing your post and adding Tech as a tag may be helpful.

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I went ahead and added tech and privacy.... interestingly tech doesn't show up below the question.... I knew that would happen if the question was already in the Tech section (I checked G2G Tag-Talk), but it's in the Policy and Style section. Anyway, I do believe this post will show up in the tech feed.

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Hi Jason. This will not address your privacy concerns, but for general information on why the "monetization" involved is important for the free operation of WikiTree, an old comment by Stephen Harris is relevant:

WikiTree has a partnership with Ancestry. We get a small credit for clicks over their to site, purchases made, etc. This is one of the ways that WikiTree is able to remain free.

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Instead of that partnership, which generates a small amount of revenue, how about a tip jar?

keep it pure.

Ed

Answer 1

Hi Jason,

WikiTree is not using Rakuten Advertising (LinkSynergy) to collect any data on our users, and the use of WikiTree does not allow Rakuten to collect any data on you ... unless you click on a Rakuten/LinkSynergy link, which you will do if you click on almost any Ancestry.com link on our site. Ancestry uses Rakuten for their affiliate program. This enables them to give WikiTree a small percentage of the subscription revenue if a new member comes through WikiTree.

We cannot monitor or control what information an external website collects about you. When you click to another website, you've left our domain. I couldn't tell you more about Rakuten's privacy policies than you have already found on their privacy policy. I suppose I can add that we do not send Rakuten any special information about you. So, there are no issues here that would be unique to WikiTree.

For more context and perspective, here is a response from another team member:

"A person's movements across websites gets collated because big services like Google Analytics and advertising systems can see the same user going to multiple places. While no one site reveals too much to those services about the user, the aggregate reveals a great deal. This is compounded when the user is signed into Facebook or Google or something similar, because then the _person_ is identified, not just an anonymous user. Their web activity then gets connected to things like credit scores and everything else.

"It's a problem, arguably a big problem. But it's not something any one site can control. In principle, WikiTree could opt out of using GA and out of using any general purpose advertising network. If the only external links are for specific destinations, even if they have campaign parameters, then the user doesn't get 'tracked' in the same way.

"That's not practical with the current state of the web. And attempts to do that would probably fail somewhere anyway (even dedicated affiliate systems use the larger, more general tracking). The only solution would be to abandon affiliate links and all user analytics entirely. The site can't operate that way, unless some very wealthy person wants to foot the bill.

"The only partial solution which can work is for individuals to have ad/tracking blockers in their browser. I have several myself. They can help reduce the info gathered by the borg system of aggregated user information, but I'm under no illusions that they eliminate it. And if you actively click on a link that goes through an affiliate redirector, you're providing your 'click' information outside any blocking extension."

Chris