Privacy and Data Protection

Date: 9 Jan 2021 [unknown]
Location: WikiTree

Contents 1 Overview 2 Useful Tips 2.1 Create profiles 2.2 Saving Profile Changes 2.3 Use Privacy Settings 2.4 Check what the public sees 2.5 Consider Using Private Messages instead of Public Comments 2.6 Review GEDCOM data carefully 3 Have Questions?

Overview

At WikiTree, we aim to protect the privacy of all living individuals for their protection and in line with data protection legislation, such as GDPR legislation. WikiTree has excellent privacy controls, but that won’t protect you and your family if you publish personal information about yourself, or other living people, in your biography, the Communications section of your Profile, or comments on other people’s profiles.

WikiTree is a public website, so what you post is visible to anyone! When you post, ask yourself ‘Would I publish this information on FaceBook, or in a newspaper?’ If the answer is ‘No’, don’t post it in visible areas of WikiTree!

Remember:

• You alone are responsible for the information you share about yourself and other people!

• You should make sure you have the explicit consent of living people before sharing their personal information publicly!

• You should not share information about people who are under 16, unless you are their parent. Even if you are their parent, you should avoid publishing birth dates and locations.

• Do not publish your address, email, or phone number! The same applies to sharing your account names on FaceBook, Twitter, or other social media sites. WikiTree has comments and private messages for communicating with WikiTree members.

For full details of WikiTree’s Privacy Policy, see Privacy Policy.

Useful Tips

Create profiles

Instead of including information about living family members in your biography, create profiles for each family member. WikiTree will make the profiles of living people unlisted to protect their data. You can choose who to grant access to see their information by giving Trusted List access.

Saving Profile Changes

If you make changes to your biography, or the biography of other living family members, these may not save if you have not provided a birth or death date, or set the correct status for birth and death dates and locations. WikiTree will give an error message at the top of the page.

Perhaps you are concerned about your privacy, or the privacy of living family members? In cases where you do not supply dates and locations, use the following settings.

Use Privacy Settings

If you still want to include private information, consider changing your privacy setting to Private with Public Family Tree, especially if you have a DNA badge and want to collaborate on potential DNA matches.

Check what the public sees

Did you know you can check what is visible to the public, by going to your profile and clicking on the Profile (public view) tab?

To return to the private view, click on the [Return to Private view] link at the top.

When viewing your profile in public view

• Note how birth date shows as the decade.

• Note how living family members show as [Private ...]

Consider Using Private Messages instead of Public Comments

If you are sharing information about living people, consider sending a Private Message, rather than adding a public comment.

Do be aware that the person you are messaging will receive your Private Message as an Email and will be able to respond via email directly to you. There is no need to publish your email address and/or phone number!

Occasionally, those working on a mobile phone will find it has recorded your phone number in the Prefix field. If this happens, edit your profile to remove it.

Review GEDCOM data carefully

Sometimes personal data may be imported as part of your GEDCOM file. When editing the data which has been imported, review it carefully to ensure that it is information you are happy to make public. Remember WikiTree is used internationally and information may be viewed by people who are not in the same country as you are.

Have Questions?

For further information about privacy, see Privacy - Living Members.

If you have further questions about privacy and data protection, contact your Greeter, or post in WikiTree’s g2g forum.

Last updated : Skillings-87 15:55, 28 April 2021 (UTC)