FYI - Be Warned with Free sites. ------------------- >This isn't the first time this has happened. > >GeoCities has been cheerfully selling its information about its >members to whoever wanted to buy it for as long as I can remember. >They were sufficiently blatant about it that the FTC finally sat on >them just a few months ago. > >Most of the other "free" sites probably do the same thing. > >The thing that really worries me is the feeling that the information >we gather with our query systems and such at sites like GeoCities >will eventually be sold to marketeers. > >I don't think it's a matter of "if" -- I think it's a matter of >"when". The Board and the SCs probably ought to be thinking about >how they are going to regain the confidence of the community after >some site like GeoCities sells some business like Broderbund a list >of e-mail addresses that appear on genealogical Websites they host. > >At risk of patting ourselves on the back, this is one problem will >never arise at RootsWeb. First of all, we think this is a *really* >slimey practice and can't imagine anyone with more moral fiber than >an earthworm selling information to marketeers. Apart from that, we >couldn't sell information even if we were slimey devils; RootsWeb is >funded by voluntary contributions, and those contributions would dry >up in a heartbeat and we'd die eventually if we were ever anything >other than squeaky-clean in the way we operate. > >Cheers, B. > > >-- >Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L >RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative http://www.rootsweb.com/