Changes to FIND MY PAST "My Records"

[Ruskie]

I notice that if you have a subscription you are not receiving this email.
When are they going to let their Loyal subscribers know that if they do not renew they will lose their saved Records.
If it is a new Policy you would think everyone would be notified.
Just saying.

Carol

In some ways that could be worse. If you decided to stop subscribing you may not have enough time to extract any records you have not saved.

I wonder if they will wait till a current subscriber says they wish to quit their subscription before they tell them?

I have never thought to save any of the images I have in "My Records". Luckily I don't have many so it is not a huge task for me.

I don't see why they are being vague about the date either - "some time in September" is not really good enough. If they gave a definite date at least people would know where they stand.

Two or three weeks notice isn't much time for people who have been subscribers for years and have accumulated pages of records to sort through all of it.

[smudwhisk]

According to Who Do You Think You are Magazine via a link on their Facebook page the new policy comes into effect on 1 October, confirmed by FindMyPast.  I wonder if this has been clarified because of a lot of complaints ....

I've always saved a copy of any viewed document on either Ancestry or FindMyPast that I've wanted to keep.  Never crossed my mind to use that facility for saving, but I suppose that's because I don't use the tree facility on Ancestry and save records that way, I've always kept my trees offline and downloaded copies of documents I've wanted to keep.  I accept others work differently to me but as I've posted previously, the subs were for access to the records not to purchase individual copy records.  For the latter you would expect to retain access, which is what has been said by FindMyPast about those purchased by PAYG credits. 

That said, they should really have notified subscribers of the change with notice too, as a non-subscriber I have received the email but would have expected all to have received it.

[Rosinish]

"I notice that if you have a subscription you are not receiving this email.
When are they going to let their Loyal subscribers know that if they do not renew they will lose their saved Records"

"In some ways that could be worse. If you decided to stop subscribing you may not have enough time to extract any records you have not saved.

I wonder if they will wait till a current subscriber says they wish to quit their subscription before they tell them?"

Very strange indeed & yes it could be worse...'scaremongering' comes to mind 

Annie

[jaybelnz]

For quite a while I only had an iPad, which you cannot download records to, hence why I haven't downloaded everything.

I will be able to still access many of the records at our local library, but not newspapers (BNA)

Maybe you could either take screenshots or copy and past your records into your iPad notebook??

[DavidG02]

I got this and like others slightly annoyed that the email got sent 1 day before the cut off.

Further reading of the email suggests this is going to be a slight annoyance

1. Because its nice to refer back every now and then
2. In searching you can see the tick of previous 'look ups' to save time.


But on further reading I just have to subscribe at some later point to view them

[Ruskie]

But on further reading I just have to subscribe at some later point to view them

I don't trust them. I wouldn't be surprised if you will be compelled to take out an annual subscription to view your previous searches - maybe they won't be viewable on free weekends, on £1 month subs (if they ever offer these again), or with credits or monthly subscriptions?

Similar to the 1939 register only being available to view with an annual subscription. 

[DavidG02]

But on further reading I just have to subscribe at some later point to view them

I don't trust them. I wouldn't be surprised if you will be compelled to take out an annual subscription to view your previous searches - maybe they won't be viewable on free weekends, on £1 month subs (if they ever offer these again), or with credits or monthly subscriptions?

Similar to the 1939 register only being available to view with an annual subscription. 

Can only hope.

[Guy Etchells]

I have just looked at My Records on both of my accounts. I think that previous searches and views of images must automatically have been saved as I don't recall ever saving any.

I have some odd things in My Records - many don't seem to relate to any families I am researching (possibly they were look ups for others?).

I think there is an option to print or download each image. I will probably have to go through and do that. Not so bad for me as an occasional user - I don't have millions of records saved, but I can imagine it would be an impossible task for many users and lapsed members.

I thought FindMyPast were a bit sneaky changing and making the 'opt in'/'opt out' option for membership renewal more complicated and confusing, to "trick" people into paying for annual memberships. This  is yet another cash grab.

It leaves a bad taste I think .... 

Added: jaybelnz, that is SO frustrating! I think those points are often a bit of a scam, and they make it intentionally difficult to redeem.

Instead of moaning about FindMyPast or indeed any other record provider why don't you moan about the EU politicians who have caused this and other similar problems.
As the legal advisors are getting their heads round "privacy" legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) they are of the view that recording previous viewing and retaining records could be in breach of the above and similar legislation.
The easiest way to reduce the risk is to remove any saved records from the lapsed accounts of previous subscribers.

You cannot have it both ways you either support the current paranoia about "privacy", agree with the legislation and congratulate FindMyPast etc. or you disagree with the legislation but congratulate FindMyPast etc. for complying with the law even if they may disagree with it. In which case you should write to your MPs and MEPs in an effort to change bad law.

Cheers
Guy

[smudwhisk]

Instead of moaning about FindMyPast or indeed any other record provider why don't you moan about the EU politicians who have caused this and other similar problems.
As the legal advisors are getting their heads round "privacy" legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) they are of the view that recording previous viewing and retaining records could be in breach of the above and similar legislation.
The easiest way to reduce the risk is to remove any saved records from the lapsed accounts of previous subscribers.

If its to do with GDPR then why has Ancestry been restricting such access for years then?  GDPR was known about for some time prior to it coming into effect, so why now and not when it first was implemented since that's when many of the cautious changes were made for privacy reasons.  Its all very well rubbishing GDPR and ignoring the benefits in favour of the negativities (and there are benefits) but it could also quite possibly be down to the fact that FindMyPast seen an opportunity to perhaps increase subscription sales by removing that feature.  With the 1939 Register now on other sites, that's removed a major plus for subscribing to the site.