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Forums: Index > Watercooler > Policy on Living people


I don't know if I read of a policy here on privacy issues regarding currently living people. Anyone doing Genealogy research knows how easy it is to find info on living people, but just the same, I personally decline to do anthing more than refer to someone by the first name "Living", birth year & parents. I only give full info only on deceased relatives.

I know the idea of wikia's are to promote community, but it seems to me that only a living individual should be able to add full info their article.

Whole can of worms there, and I don't really care when you come up with a policy, or do I really care to participate in deciding what it is. But it's an issue to think about, and be clear on regarding notices. That is- We have DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED... warning and right by that warning we should have one on private info.

-Mak 21:41, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

I think it's about 6 months since we discussed this subject. "Social Security Numbers" was the specific subject at that time. Maybe Bill remembers more detail. Robin Patterson 02:01, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
There it is, just down the forum list, 3 months back: Forum:Social Security Numbers; touches on a number of other aspects of privacy and how we encourage it. Robin Patterson 14:24, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Different people are often concerned about different things. Sometimes I don't understand the concern, but its still legitimate. In this case, I do understand the concern. Why people would want to put personal information out on living relatives I do not understand at all. Not only is it rude, but its moderately dangerous. On the otherhand, everyonce in awhile you'll see a one shot regisration on this site, where the persons only intent is to put up a puff ego piece about themselves. I thought MyFace was for things like that. At anyrate, putting information in about living folks is something to be discouraged. The SSN was only the tip of the iceberg of those kinds of problems. Bill 18:52, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Gene usage[]

Some folks, such as myself will have no problem putting out their Y-DNA and mtDNA info, but have huge huge problems with even my real name or parents names released. It is really surprising how much damage someone can do if they have these simple bits of information.

I need to be able to have an article that has my tree info, the gene info, but the parents and grandparents names hidden. I propose the convention to use the first name as "Hidden", and prototyped this sort of article here: Hidden Riggs (ys-7VJNR). Use of the term "Hidden" is common practice on sites that allow you to look up the dna info. One of them allows you to view the family tree, and when it gets to their nodes, it says "Hidden". I propose that in place of birth year, the YSearch or YBase user ID is given, as in the example ys indicates YSearch user id, followed by the ID.

I think I repeated that in the DNA conventions note, but how does that sound?-Phlox- (formerly Mak/Knife Maker) 19:53, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

"Living" is common on more traditional genealogy sites, eg me on WorldConnect; but your idea allows parents and others to be hidden even if dead without having a misleading moniker. Good. Robin Patterson 03:26, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
Ok Hidden it is. -Phlox- (formerly Mak) 03:35, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Example article & message prototype[]

Left
Privacy Request: Family members request no additions be made to this article without the express permission from the direct family of this individual.

Here is an example of a minimalist article with an example Privacy request message. Example article on Hidden individual. -Phlox- 03:17, 10 September 2007 (UTC)