GENi.com

[daveb]

Hi,

 I've just come across this site when searching a name on google. As i have never seen this site before I was rather surprised at the amount of info on it relating to my search. Is it one of those sites where the info is uploaded without extensive research i.e. picked from others' endeavours?
 Some of the info had taken me ages to research.

daveb

[Daisy Loo]

Good grief, I have just looked myself, and not only does it list the names of my parents, but also of my children!

What is this site??

[kaysii]

If you have shared your family tree with others, they might have uploaded it onto Geni. It is an American/Californian site for which you can subscribe or join as a free member, but you are unable .

I would contact the company and state that you have found your personal details on the website and say you have not given permission for your personal details to be so used. I am not sure what "personal data" is protected in Californian law.

As to the validity of the research, it can vary. Some have linked their trees and in some cases the information is well researched in others it is not. I used it for a while, but I made a mistake and it got linked with another person's tree and although I had information kept private someone had managed to get details and loaded the tree onto another family tree site. I contacted them there and they removed the information or made it private. They weren't aware of it as they had copied a very large family tree. I have removed all living persons names on my family tree to avoid any future problems. Kaysii

[daveb]

 I think it's one of those sites that people subscribe to without any research whatsover,save for poaching others families. I have found details of my antecedents on there that are definitely not related to others of the same name who belong to a titled family. They could have been in the dim & distant past i.e. before it became possible through written records but settled in totally different areas of the country (the Norman invasion etc.)
 It's extremely annoying but there is little that can be done, it seems. I usually only try to share my tree with people that I think are genuinly interested but this shows it is easy to make a mistake.

 daveb

[supermoussi]

I found living people's info on there too, including very young childrens, who obviously didn't give their permission for their info to be spread worldwide to every Tom, Dick and Pedo.

America's privacy laws are much worse than the UK's, so the best policy is not to give any info about living people to anyone, as you never know when one day it will wing its way onto the internet.

[Cell]

Hi,

I too would like to know about this site.

The reason being my 6 yr old son is doing family history at school and the teacher has come up with a suggestion that they can do their family trees on this, and is this ok with us  parents. They want the children to put their grandparents on , aunts uncles that sort of thing.
 I am very uncomfortable about it  for the reason being it sounds as if your tree is not private - they seem to have a policy of not making living people public, but from  some of the above messages that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm more than a bit apprehensive ( to put it very lightly) about my young  child putting his details and making a  tree on there

To the people who use this site , please can you explain to us what privacy there is - can you make your whole tree private? Is the aim of the site to make a world tree? - ie so you can't keep your tree private ( except for living people)

Kind regards

[roopat]

Cell - say NO and put it in writing to the school governors, local authority, press, whoever. It's fine if they want the children to make a 'paper' or word-processed version of their tree - but why would they want them to put it on the internet???

When I was teaching they went over to cash-less payment for dinners etc.  so all kids and staff had to register their thumbprint on the school data system - only one student in my class of 30 refused as she didn't want her thumbrint recorded anywhere however 'secure' the system was. Oh - I did too!

Call me old-fashioned...... (please!  ) but there's little enough protection of our personal info as it is.

Pat

[andycand]

Hi

I would be saying no and getting onto the school urgently and suggest strongly that they rethink the idea of posting to the internet. I was advised many years ago, never post anything on the internet you wouldn't want to see on the frontpage of your local paper no matter how private you believe it to be.
Also, I suspect that the school would be in breach of the Data Protection legislation

Andy

[davidft]

Also, I suspect that the school would be in breach of the Data Protection legislation

Andy

Yes that is the first thing that occurred to me too.

I remember reading a while ago about a school pupil who "had to do" a family tree populating it with entirely fictitious people - I think that's the way to go, come to think of it there are more than a few trees like that on internet wedsites hosting family trees