I do not use Genes Reunited anymore, my details were used without permission to set up a 'tree' which meant people could find my name and year and place of birth when searching. Also I have seen these details transferred by someone to Wikitree which was then fully Google searchable although I am obviously still living and should be covered by privacy laws. I have had to get everything removed (in the end with Wikitree by threatening legal action) as they did not care before this. I even checked into their 'high recommendation ratings' that they boast of and was not surprised that the high ratings that they received were posted by the owners of the company and their friends ! I am afraid that Genes Reunited and Wikitree are not the most ethical or efficient of companies, and I would never use them.
I would recommend a site such as ancestry where you can set up a free account, and it can be safe and has safeguards for privacy in built.
I would also NEVER recommend anyone to put your tree as public.
There is nothing stopping anyone from accessing your public tree, taking the information that you have and using it as their research, but they may not treat it as ethically and sensitively as you would.
All the information on YOUR tree is still copyright of the original sources, and it is up to you to protect this and also the rights of people on your tree not to have their names and personal details shown to anyone. You have a duty of care to anyone on your tree.
On ancestry you can set your tree as private but index searchable which means YOU have the control over who views your tree or not, and all living people should be set as living, and you should not allow the people viewing your tree to see living people. I have fully private trees on there, which only myself and trusted family members can access upon an invite to the tree from myself via the tree pages.
