Several of us have been recently talking, offlist, about privacy issues. I am personally a big advocate of protecting personal privacy. It is my belief that privacy is the foundation, if not the cornerstone, of all other personal freedoms. Anyway, that said and getting off of my soap box :) here is an article out of a genealogy newsletter that I receive. Mike ============ - Another Privacy Invasion? I normally do not get too concerned with the issue of personal privacy. However, this week I found a new Web site that concerns me. AnyBirthday.com allows you to search a free database of well over 135 million records for the birthdate of almost anyone in the United States. I went to that site and started testing it. Not only did I find my own date of birth, I also found the birthdates of almost everyone else that I tried. Of course, I did try to find the exact birthdate of my great-great-grandfather who was born around 1810. Unfortunately, this site doesn't have records back that far. Most of the records contained in their database are for living individuals. I find it a bit disturbing that my own birthdate along with about ten others that I checked on are available to anyone who wants to know this information and has access to the internet. Does this seem a bit scary and invasive to anyone else? You can look for birthdates at: http://www.anybirthday.com --------------------------------------------------------------- About the author: Dick Eastman is the forum manager of the four Genealogy Forums on CompuServe. He also is the author of "YOUR ROOTS: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer" published by Ziff-Davis Press. He can be reached at: roots@compuserve.com Subscription information: To subscribe to this free newsletter, to cancel an existing subscription or to modify an existing subscription in any way, go to: http://rootscomputing.listbot.com If you want to see the current issue as well as back issues of the newsletter, look on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ancestry.com/learn/columns/eastman.htm

Hi to All, Ancestry.com had my name and parents for several generations listed on their web page. I asked them to remove it and they did within 2 to 3 weeks. There was no argument, no disagreement. I did not want it there. They took it off. ROOTSWEB on the other hand WILL NOT REMOVE my living family members. They REFUSE! I am mad. Even if information is available elsewhere, why make it easy for the con artists to rip you off and steal your identity, open bank accounts in your name, buy things and charge it to your name, then not pay; and ruin your credit rating (and make you pay for their purchases?) Genealogy is about DEAD relatives--not living ones!! Do not send your gedcoms with the names of living family members to anyone--because you do not know what they are going to do with them or who they will pass them on to AND you have no idea what some recipient down the line will do with your information either. Just protect yourself as much as possible and keep private information private. Carole -------------------- Mike Dunton wrote: > > Several of us have been recently talking, offlist, about privacy issues. I > am personally a big advocate of protecting personal privacy. It is my > belief that privacy is the foundation, if not the cornerstone, of all other > personal freedoms. Anyway, that said and getting off of my soap box :) here > is an article out of a genealogy newsletter that I receive. > > Mike > ============ > > - Another Privacy Invasion? > > I normally do not get too concerned with the issue of personal > privacy. However, this week I found a new Web site that concerns > me. > > AnyBirthday.com allows you to search a free database of well over > 135 million records for the birthdate of almost anyone in the > United States. I went to that site and started testing it. Not > only did I find my own date of birth, I also found the birthdates > of almost everyone else that I tried. Of course, I did try to find > the exact birthdate of my great-great-grandfather who was born > around 1810. Unfortunately, this site doesn't have records back > that far. Most of the records contained in their database are for > living individuals. > > I find it a bit disturbing that my own birthdate along with about > ten others that I checked on are available to anyone who wants to > know this information and has access to the internet. Does this > seem a bit scary and invasive to anyone else? > > You can look for birthdates at: http://www.anybirthday.com > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > About the author: Dick Eastman is the forum manager of the four > Genealogy Forums on CompuServe. He also is the author of "YOUR > ROOTS: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer" published by > Ziff-Davis Press. He can be reached at: roots@compuserve.com > > Subscription information: To subscribe to this free newsletter, to > cancel an existing subscription or to modify an existing > subscription in any way, go to: > > http://rootscomputing.listbot.com > > If you want to see the current issue as well as back issues of the > newsletter, look on the World Wide Web at: > > http://www.ancestry.com/learn/columns/eastman.htm