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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Zaphod99 on Wednesday 13 August 25 12:00 BST (UK)

Title: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Zaphod99 on Wednesday 13 August 25 12:00 BST (UK)
I've put this in the lighter side section which should be a clue.

For a child who has died, parents sometimes list the names of surviving siblings. Those siblings are living minors, so publishing their full names in an online grave index or even in a cemetery could bring GDPR into play.

SECONDLY WHILE THE STONE IN ITSELF IN A CEMETERY IS PUBLIC TO ANYONE WALKING BY, ANY SCANNING, INDEXING AND PUBLISHING GRAVE DATA ONLINE, IF IT INCLUDES THE NAMES OF LIVING FAMILY COULD BREACH UK GDPR REGULATIONS.   Sorry, caps off.

Zaph
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Tin man on Wednesday 13 August 25 12:18 BST (UK)
Don't know where you've seen that Zaph, the only names on headstones I've ever seen are for dead people. I wonder what the Findagrave website would say about this?
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Zaphod99 on Wednesday 13 August 25 12:24 BST (UK)
Tinman, lots of headstones have the names of people left behind.  You see things like "Dearly departed John Smith, grandfather to Mary and John, father of Richard", etc.

Zaph
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Tin man on Wednesday 13 August 25 12:43 BST (UK)
Oh yes, I see what you mean.
If the gravestone is in the public domain then surely GDPR regulations wouldn't apply. Those still living must have given their permission for their names to be added to the gravestone.  ???
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Andy J2022 on Wednesday 13 August 25 13:13 BST (UK)
Deleted - wrong thread
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: GrahamSimons on Wednesday 13 August 25 13:33 BST (UK)
Oh yes, I see what you mean.
If the gravestone is in the public domain then surely GDPR regulations wouldn't apply. Those still living must have given their permission for their names to be added to the gravestone.  ???
Agreed.  If the info is "out there" then it's public. And there is no Data Controller either. I'm afraid an awful lot of GDPR "issues" are just scare stories.
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Zaphod99 on Wednesday 13 August 25 14:23 BST (UK)
I doubt that the extended family, especially young children, were consulted, about the wording on a departed relative's headstone.



Oh yes, I see what you mean.
If the gravestone is in the public domain then surely GDPR regulations wouldn't apply. Those still living must have given their permission for their names to be added to the gravestone.  ???
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Tin man on Wednesday 13 August 25 16:26 BST (UK)
Just found this about GDPR covered previously:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=805886.msg6646832#msg6646832
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Zaphod99 on Wednesday 13 August 25 16:30 BST (UK)
Tin, that was interesting, but I'm surprised that nobody has made further contributions since January 2019. Surely there have been various court rulings and challenges since that date?

Zaph
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: zetlander on Saturday 30 August 25 13:35 BST (UK)
agree with Tin Man - don't recall ever seeing names of relatives of the deceased on a headstone -  plenty with references to the deceased being
 '....... dear husband/wife  mother/father grandfather/grandmother' etc -
 but no names of living relatives at the time of death on the headstone.
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: Enumerated on Saturday 20 September 25 16:52 BST (UK)
I have sometimes seen these gravestones with the names of living people, particularly children, listed on them.
I photograph gravestones for findagrave and when I make a memorial for one like this, I add the photo but I don't type out the inscription naming the living children. Findagrave instructs us not to name possibly living people in the memorials we create.
Title: Re: Headstones in cemeteries and the GDPR regulations
Post by: PrawnCocktail on Sunday 21 September 25 11:01 BST (UK)
There is enough information online to identify people, especially if they have anything unusual about their names. It's not long ago that I shocked fellow trustees of a charity I was a trustee for, by handing two of them (both married and female) a piece of paper which their mother's maiden name and at least one past address was written on. All I had needed was their everyday names and a good idea where they lived.

Any competent genealogist in the UK can fill in the boxes on Ancestry marked "private", unless there's a common surname involved. For that reason neither my daughter nor her children are included in my tree, which is also private.