26 August 2016

The Right To Privacy – Care & Selectivity in What You Publish About Others

Created by Josh Hallett, https://www.flickr.com/photos/hyku/368912557/.  
[CC-BY-ND-2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via flickr

The Right To Privacy – Care & Selectivity in What You Publish About Others

Privacy!  We all have different thresholds on this topic.  Some people do not post any information anywhere and others invite you right into their daily lives.

As genealogists we want to share information.  As genealogists we have a duty to share accurate information.  As genealogists we also have a RESPONSIBILITY to preserve the privacy of others, who are either directly or indirectly impacted by the information to be revealed.

I was reminded of this when I read To Write or Not to Write: Respecting Privacy in Family-History Storytelling (posted on the Genealogy Insider blog).  Our stories are not just our stories, they are stories that involve our family and other families.  We do and did not live in isolation on an island by ourselves.  Though we are the star of our own story, there are others involved every step of the way.

As you write your story or the story of an ancestor, do keep in mind everyone’s right to PRIVACY.

Though there is an incredible amount of information out there already about
Here are a few resources on privacy in the context of genealogy and family history research extending beyond just writing stories – what you post on the internet, how you interact with other researchers, and much more:

·        Genealogical Privacy.org
·        Privacy Issues for Family Historians (Dick Eastman on MyHeritage blog)
·        Privacy Issues (St Clair County MI Genealogy on the Web)


Do you have your own check-list to use as you decide on what remains private? If so, please share.

What is your go-to resource when evaluating what to keep private versus make public?







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