Hello, all, The committee has completed its work on a proposed privacy policy for the GAGenWeb Project. Thanks to chairman Keith Giddeon and members Linda Blum-Barton, Ed Gordon and Liz Nash for their work on this. The proposed policy is cited below, as well as at the following url: http://www.giddeon.com/wilkes/privacy/ Let's have discussion on this for the remainder of the week, and be prepared to vote on Monday, May 2. As always, let's keep the discussion respectful and issue-focused. Thanks, Vivian Final Committee Draft of The GAGenWeb Privacy Policy The GAGenWeb Project is dedicated to the free exchange of genealogical information on the World Wide Web. Our goal is to provide free genealogical information for the family researcher in a manner that will protect the privacy of living persons by not sharing personal information about them without their permission. In order to provide the most protection, some genealogical information may not be available to the researcher. Being aware that the sharing of information online is essential to family history research, and that living persons have a right to privacy, The GAGenWeb Project and the volunteers who make up the Project will abide by the following guidelines when publishing personal information of any person on a Project site. Project Volunteers should: • recognize that the legal right to privacy may limit how information is used on their Web site(s). • never knowingly include information of living persons on their site(s) without that person's prior approval. • provide information, as needed, to contributors on the need to protect the privacy of their living relatives. • ask contributors if permission has been granted by living people for the sharing of personal information about them. • remove any information upon receipt of a request by the person listed at the earliest possible time. Allowable exceptions to this policy are: • Census records — transcriptions or other facsimiles of U. S. Census Bureau schedules are acceptable for use on Project sites, though a Project volunteer should remove any person's census record upon request by that person. • Marriage records — transcriptions or other facsimiles of county marriage records are acceptable for use on Project sites, though a Project volunteer may choose a specific cut-off date for their local or special project. A Project volunteer should remove any person's name from a marriage record upon request by that person. • Cemetery surveys — compiled cemetery headstones are acceptable for use on Project sites, though a Project volunteer should remove any living person's headstone transcription upon request by that person. • Obituaries — the names of surviving family members, pallbearers, and friends listed in obituaries may be published, if all other personal information (such as place of street address, employer, etc.) on those persons is redacted. ======================================================================