'Creepy' genealogy site knows a lot about you (search, family tree, database)
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mine has former addresses I forgot about many years ago. I opted out on Wednesday, they seem to have erased it now.
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Early Tuesday morning, Anna Brittain got a text from her sister: Did she know about Familytreenow.com? The relatively unknown site, which presents itself as a free genealogy resource, seemed to know an awful lot about her.
“The site listed my 3- and 5-year-olds as ‘possible associates,’ ” Brittain, a 30-year-old young-adult fiction writer in Birmingham, Ala., told The Washington Post on Tuesday. Her sister, a social worker who works at a child advocacy center, found the site while doing a regular Internet footprint checkup on herself. “Given the danger level of my sister’s occupation,” Brittain added, the depth of information available on the genealogy site “scared me to death.”
There are many “people search” sites and data brokers out there, like Spokeo, or Intelius, that also know a lot about you. This is not news, at least for the Internet-literate. And the information on FamilyTreeNow comes largely from the public records and other legally accessible sources that those other data brokers use. What makes FamilyTreeNow stand out on the creepy scale, though, is how easy the site makes it for anyone to access that information all at once, and free.
Nothing creepy about it at all. I've been seeing the same information on various sites for years when I've done name searches. And this new site is just as inaccurate.
Why this received the press it did is beyond me. Easier? not. Free? so what.
I'm always afraid if I opt out that it gives more credibility to the information and it will be used against me at a later time.
I used to send off for a lot of freebies and coupons. I couldn't always tell who was legitimate and who just wanted my information so they could sell it. I've found that having a separate email and using my real name, but not a version that I answer to really helps a lot. I still get a lot of junk mail from my aliases. I used to get phone calls when we had the land line. The person on the phone always seemed to be surprised to learn that my alias doesn't live here. I don't have that problem with companies who legitimately have a business interest.
I checked...What I saw was about 1/3 of the information was wrong including family members. I chose to 'opt out' but did a general internet Google search and found that the same information -- including the wrong information -- is listed on a couple other sites. There is a lot of verbatim sharing going on without any oversight or fact checking. I've seen complaints that they had information only available from credit card records...I didn't see anything like that on the site. I also didn't see any genealogical value in the information they had posted.
It's no creepier than those people search sites. It sounds like it's the same thing, but the owners simply found a new way to market themselves. At least they allow listed people to opt out. Many of the people search sites don't allow that.
Nothing creepy about it at all. I've been seeing the same information on various sites for years when I've done name searches. And this new site is just as inaccurate.
Why this received the press it did is beyond me. Easier? not. Free? so what.
Exactly!
The people not listed when I finally managed to look up my name(s) were notable in their absence.
First and second ex-wives, first four children, not there.
Mother's name, not there.
Step father's name, not there.
Sister's name, not there.
Military service, not there.
Addresses outside the state I live in now, not there.
Employment history, not there.
Mine said I was associated with people I have never heard of!!
But the other stuff was just public records. If you google yourself, you usually see the same stuff. These sites also willlink you to people who are your social media friends, like on Facebook.
I have a pretty unique surname so it always says everyone in the state with my surname is a "possible relation" and honestly everyone in the state with my surname actually is related to me lol.
Mine said I was associated with people I have never heard of!!
But the other stuff was just public records. If you google yourself, you usually see the same stuff. These sites also willlink you to people who are your social media friends, like on Facebook.
I have a pretty unique surname so it always says everyone in the state with my surname is a "possible relation" and honestly everyone in the state with my surname actually is related to me lol.
I just looked myself up, it listed my name 9 different ways for associated names, 5 of those are my current name; none of them are correct lol
Some are addresses I never used but my ex did so it's possible house bills were being sent there during my divorce.
For possible relatives it listed a few people I've never heard of but the rest were my hubs family, my sibling and parts of her ex's family which makes me wonder if one of them made a tree on the site because the possible associate has one on my heritage. My hubs sister has also been doing family trees on various sites, I wonder if she has one there too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uggabugga
hopefully not a dupe, I did look...
mine has former addresses I forgot about many years ago. I opted out on Wednesday, they seem to have erased it now.
Thanks for letting us know they removed it because you never know with these sites. I'll have to play around with it more to see who else besides myself needs opting out.
They are using public records, which are records anyone could access if they wanted to. Unless you live "off the grid" there are always ways people can track you down.
That said, they had nothing on me, but that's probably because I've spent the best part of my adult life living in England and only just moved back the states a few years ago.
I know I am repeating what has been posted already to this thread. Familytreenow is like those other people search engines, which utilize public records. As time marches on, the public records provide more and more details online, unfortunately. Sometimes the personal information can be embarrassing. An embarrassing example would be if someone has a criminal record. That can easily show up online somewhere from database searches.
Those type of people search sites have been around for well over a decade, it is nothing new. These types of websites contain more information, particularly if you have high public profiles on social media websites using your real name. About the only good part is, the social media profile information is something an individual can control and minimize if you are worried about your personal information being online.
If you live in the US and are over 18 years of age, chances are your name is indexed somewhere in those people search databases.
Last edited by maus; 01-16-2017 at 05:12 AM..
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