Hi everyone, My apologies if you get more than one copy of this, but I recently received this and thought I'd pass it on. It's not a spam or virus warning, but something that we need to be aware of, especially when there are some inexperienced users online. Hugs, Jen The following article was forwarded to me by several genealogy friends on the Internet and I think that many of you might also be interested. To keep from something like this happening to you, check the site for "security information" before you leave any information. Even then, be very careful if you don't want your personal information passed on or sold. The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 1998 by Richard W. Eastman and Ancestry, Inc. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. - Genealogy Web Site Sells Your Name and E-mail Address It's a tough world. Lots of businesses sell their customer lists these days. The result is that you get junk mail and marketing phone calls from all sorts of companies trying to sell you something you probably don't want. The newest twist is "spam mail", unwanted e-mails that advertise all sorts of junk. Now a well-known genealogy Web site is contributing to the spam mail that you receive and apparently is profiting from personal information that they obtain from you under the guise of helping you do genealogy research. In fact, the Web site apparently is a "front", as the main purpose seems to be gathering personal information about you and then selling that information. The Family Tree House Web site at http://www.usaafter.com claims that it is "the Association for FamilyTree Enrollment and Registry." The home page says, "This site offers free family tree software and links to key genealogy sites. The software is available on-line. You can build your FamilyTree House in real time, no downloading is required." They also say, "...you can create and register your own on-line FamilyTree. And because it is on-line, you can enlist the help of other family members by giving them your personal access code to allow them to fill in the missing branches--it's a project the whole family can participate in no matter where they live." On another page the site advises, "When requesting information, please make sure you include your name, mailing address and the information you would like." After they collect all the personal information from you and your other family members, the owners of Family Tree House apparently package the information and sell it to other companies that send junk mail or spam e-mails. On a different Web site, the owners of Family Tree House offer "a file of 33,600 last-12-month registrants of the Family Tree House, an association that offers Web site members free software and links to genealogy sites." The file they sell reportedly contains information about each person's date of birth, gender, e-mail address, state and ZIP code. The Web advertisement says that the file contains listings for 33,600 people who have left personal information on the Family Tree House site. To check for yourself, first look at http://www.usaafter.com and then look at: http://www.mediacentral.com/Magazines/DirectNewsline/Archive/1998100910.htm