Thank you for the responses so far. Dick, I checked the link you provided, and found it informative. I will monitor it. I agree that there are many ways that our identities can be stolen. I personally try to limit the information about myself that is given out, having refused to do business with companies that have demanded excessive information. But, it is MY choice to provide it or not. By way of clarification, I guess my concern may be more with the issue of responsibility. As family history researchers, we are admonished not to include names of living persons in data we release without their permission. This applies to sharing, publishing or posting on line. I feel it is a poor practice for Ancestry.com or any other company to knowingly violate that principle. In the case of the California birth records, information about millions of living people has been released on a worldwide forum. In my view, recent birth records are not the same as newspaper articles, obituaries, directories, etc. They should be treated differently. It is my opinion that the policy for release of the census should apply to birth records as well. Even though I may be in the minority, I do value your input. It is always helpful to look at things from different perspectives. Out of respect to the purpose of this list, the discussion may be continued privately. Thank you for your views. Kay