The thing to do with living relations on the internet is identify them as only 'living'. Do not give their full birthdates or full names and esp. not with the parent's names. For example Samuel Smith's and Linda Anderson-Smith's son would appear as living Smith, born 1950. This is ok as long as Samuel and Linda are dead. I would have information removed if it gives your full name, dob, place of birth and Mother's maiden name. Then if it also gives the date/place of death and burial of one of your parent's, then a savvy thief could obtain more information from the cemetery and from newspaper archives about other any survivors who are mentioned in the newspaper. (thus giving names and sometimes locations of where you live). I'm not saying that people search the internet for vague identities to steal. What happens is, someone who knows you, will search the internet for information about you. That is the scenario you want to avoid. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Al Askevold" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 10:53 AM Subject: Re: [ILLASALLE] Privacy issues on the Internet > Hello LaSalle, > > I have been watching this talk, some interesting points brought up. A > cousin just updated his online database. My mothers surname is in this > database. I do not send this out ever, but I am sure he has this entered > from the gedcom I sent. We both use the same genealogy program so I think > he just added info I sent in the gedcom to his and updated his database. > > My question is- should I have this surname removed? It would be no problem > but it is a hard one I need to research and this online database of my > cousin might help in this. > > Al