Respect for the Living

Why do we do genealogy? For most people, the answer is probably a mix of interest in family history and enjoying the research. There's also a social element, connecting with other interested relatives and collaborating with others on the research process.

Most genealogists focus on their direct lines, but researching the siblings and their children and grandchildren yields new clues and adds greatly to the family narrative. It's natural sometimes to get caught up in broader interests like surnames or locations too.

Most genealogists also have a healthy respect for the living, and reflect that respect in how they research, what information they choose to collect, and what information they choose to share with others or publish. However, some intentionally post information on living people without the permission of their subjects, violating expectations of privacy and the social norms of this endeavor.

Suppose a family submitted a birth announcement to a local newspaper before the advent of the Internet. Strictly speaking, that information is publicly known. But posting that information on the web today for the entire world to search and read violates the contextual assumptions that were in place when that family happily told their town of the birth. That's just one simple case.

But privacy isn't a simple concept, it's far from all or nothing, and it's not the same as secrecy. It's an essential human right guaranteed throughout the US Constitution and through other laws and agencies [e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], as well as through numerous international laws and treaties throughout history.

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) features privacy quite extensively in their Standards for Sharing Information With Others:

1. respect the restrictions on sharing information that arise from the rights of another as an author, originator or compiler; as a living private person; or as a party to a mutual agreement.

6. require some evidence of consent before assuming that living people are agreeable to further sharing of information about themselves.


7. convey personal identifying information about living people—like age, home address, occupation or activities—only in ways that those concerned have expressly agreed to.

8. recognize that legal rights of privacy may limit the extent to which information from publicly available sources may be further used, disseminated or published.

and in their Guidelines for Publishing Web Pages on the Internet:

6. adhere to the NGS "Standards for Sharing Information with Others" regarding copyright, attribution, privacy, and the sharing of sensitive information.

11. respect the rights of others who do not wish information about themselves to be published, referenced or linked on a website.

Even the Board for Certification of Genealogists' Code of Ethics and Conduct prominently features client privacy in its professional pledge.

So please, even if you think some information is "public", respect the wishes and privacy of living people and get their explicit consent if you feel the need to collect or share their information.

Remember... genealogy is a hobby, the rest is real life.

Start your child's genealogy today!

Make it easier for your descendants by starting to collect the available records on yourself!

Everyone knows how to get birth, marriage, and death certificates, but at Get My FBI File, you can generate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request letters to obtain copies of files on you that may exist at the National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Security Service (DSS), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Secret Service (USSS), or the Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID).

By the way, you can request a deceased person's FBI file at Get Grandpa's FBI file.

While you're at it, you can get the potentially extensive dossier that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has collected through its Automated Targeting System (ATS) program. Start that process at [update: original site is gone].

Update:

You can get uupdated forms to request your Passenger Name Recortds (PNR) and other records of your international travel that are being kept by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) here:

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001607.html

[via BB]

Comments on Genealogy & Privacy

Some comments on privacy I made today on a post at Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter...

In my county (and this is comparable to what I've found in many counties), you must be 18 to get a copy of your own birth certificate, or your parents can get a copy assuming they are the parents listed on the certificate. Otherwise, the county will only issue "genealogical" copies if they occurred over 75 years ago. I have not yet been able to get a copy of my own mother's birth certificate from another county, even though she is deceased, until 75 years have passed. But I respect that protection. Death records can be obtained if you are a relative or a person who can prove a financial interest. Again, if records are over 75 years old, they are openly available. Marriage certificates are public, but the applications are protected. That's not to say that some of the information on these documents can't be found elsewhere, but should it really be made too easy to find out everything about you? About your young children? I've been trying for years to get one genealogist to remove information about my minor children from his web site.

Procedures may be lax in some locales, but that is not an excuse to discount the value of the protective laws in place.

The Internet makes it too easy to find information about living people. Our laws and "commonly accepted practice" have not kept up with the technology. There used to be some measure of privacy afforded by obscurity. Identity theft and fraud are only two of many many reasons to respect the privacy of living individuals. As others pointed out, it is the increasing pervasiveness, commercialization, and lack of control of our personal information that many find objectionable. And this information is increasingly being used by others to make decisions about us that can affect employment, credit, reputation, insurability, etc. An excellent resource on these issues is the book The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age by Daniel J. Solove.

In the days of our ancestors, unless you were a prominent public figure, you would personally know most of the people who knew your intimate details.

I've never understood why some genealogists insist on publishing information on living people, without their knowledge and consent, particularly when there is little or no connection between the two people. I'm an avid genealogist and technologist myself, but we must remember that for most of us genealogy is a hobby, the rest of it is real life.