Privatizing GEDCOMs: When and Why It Matters

For those interested in uploading their GEDCOM to other sites to gain hints, new DNA matches or simply to enhance your research, making sure living people are privatized and/or protected is extremely important. Different sites have different policies and requirements. While most sites have a policy in place to try to protect the identity of living individuals, it's important to know, before you upload exactly what you're sharing. I'm going to take a look at some of the most common places users upload GEDCOMs and the default privacy practices, for living people, of each site.

As anyone who's done genealogy for any period of time knows, it doesn't take a lot of information for someone to be able to track down additional data on living people. It's fine if you're tracking it down for your own private use (let's be honest, figuring out those DNA match connections is exciting, even if it does feel a little stalky!) Most records on living people come from publicly accessible records or databases (meaning, anyone who really wants to find the information probably can). But it's still important to make sure you aren't sharing information about someone who may not want the information shared (especially minors, where you may have personal or family knowledge about key information such as full names and birthdates not yet available from other sources.)

Below are the policies from some of the most popular websites:

SITE	POLICY
Ancestry	People marked as “living” are fully visible only to the tree owner, unless the owner shares their tree with others and authorizes them to see living people (or gives them the role “editor”). To everyone else on Ancestry, living people show as “Private.” People under 100 years old are considered to be living if no death information is provided. If your tree is public, the only way to make someone private without making the whole tree private is to label them "living."
MyHeritage	Family sites at MyHeritage.com are automatically protected with privacy settings that prevent guests (non-members) from viewing sensitive information about living family members in family trees, such as first names and email addresses. They [guests] will be able to see the content that you and your site members have posted, except that your family tree will be censored (limited) so that information on living people will be hidden away. Hidden means that other than last names, no information of living people in family trees will be displayed: first names, genders, photos, dates, events, etc -- all will be hidden.
FindMyPast	Any living relatives will be marked 'private' and no details will be shown. No other user will be able to edit or change your tree in any way. Photographs and media will ONLY be shared if the additional 'Share photographs for Deceased ancestors' permission is switched on.
FamilySearch	Family Tree protects the privacy of living people by restricting who can see their records. You can see the record of a living person only if you created the record. The system hides records that you create of living people from everyone else, including the people themselves and other family members.
American Ancestors	Information about living people is always private no matter which plan you choose
Geneanet	Information about living people defined as having been alive within the past 100 years (contemporaries) are masked with the “Private” setting by default, with no information shown; you are asked to confirm this choice when you create your tree at Geneanet, or to choose one of the alternative privacy settings.
rootsfinder	Living people's data is never visible to anyone but the registered owner of the tree and those invited by that user.
GEDmatch	You agree to privatize living individuals (other than yourself) in your Genealogy Data prior to providing their Genealogy Data to GEDmatch. In order to privatize living individuals in your Genealogy Data, you must privatize Genealogy Data that contains living individuals before uploading to GEDmatch by changing the name(s) of living individual(s) to 'LIVING'... Upon an upload of a GEDcom to GEDmatch we will automatically review and change the privacy setting for the Genealogy Data of individuals in your GEDcom to “HIDDEN” if we believe such individuals are alive based on birth or death dates. The owner of a GEDcom will see the Genealogy Data of all individuals in their GEDcom that are both alive and deceased; other users will only see the Genealogy Data of deceased individuals.
FTDNA	Please note that when you select to share your family tree, living people born less than 100 years ago will not be displayed. You, deceased individuals, and individuals born more than 100 years ago will be displayed.
DNA Painter	The default option is to hide living people, replacing them with 'Living', so their details are never uploaded at all. You can optionally override this.

As you can see, most sites try to protect the privacy of living people by default, but some allow the option to override this protection based on you (the user) granting specific permissions to other users. GEDmatch has the more stringent restriction of requiring confirmation of privatization prior to upload, even though it appears they will still try to hide individuals if this hasn't been done. If you're using another site, check their policy before you upload just to be safe. And, since policies can change, reviewing periodically isn't a bad idea.

If you are an Ancestry user, please know the GEDCOM you export from Ancestry does not privatize by default. To privatize, you would need to either open the file in a text editor (such as Notepad) and edit manually or use desktop software, such as Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic, to do this for you. Depending on the size of your GEDCOM, manual editing may be less than ideal. If you use Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic, and you also privatize any facts, notes, weblinks or media, be sure you include similar privatization for these items when you export as well. You don't want to accidentally upload something to a website you never intended to become public. As we know from recent DNA breaches, anything on the web has the potential to end up in the hands of hackers. It's also wise to remember, once you post something, it's likely out there forever...even if you later delete it. Never ever upload any sensitive information or anything you, or your family members, might be horrified if it became public...especially important if the information isn't available publicly or in searchable databases (paid or free) or pertains to a minor.

While my trees are generally public (and I do have GEDCOMs uploaded to several sites), I only have 2 individuals I've allowed to see living people - and only on Ancestry where my main working tree is located. I'd suggest if you're going to allow exceptions, make it only on the site where you have your main tree. You don't want to have to remember all the various sites you may have granted different permissions if for some reason you decide to revoke access to any, or all, other users you've allowed to see living people. Privacy is a big concern, and a very legitimate one. With forethought, it doesn't have to hold you back from privatizing and reaping the benefits of more hints, more DNA matches, and the potential to break through brick walls.

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