USGenWeb | OKGenWeb | County Archive | County Queries
OKCHOCTA   Choctaw County Oklahoma Genealogy
Cemeteries | Obituaries | Headstones | Marriages | Photos | Bios & Tidbits | Maps | Pioneer Papers | Guestbook | HOME

Genealogical Q&A on Privacy Concerns

Question: I am concerned about social security numbers being listed on the site. I am concerned about the SSN being made public.

Answer: Once a person dies, the U.S. Government Social Security Office releases this information. Anyone that has had a number and has died is on this list. The information being on this site or any other site is in no way a violation of privacy as the information is readily found by going to the online Social Security Death Index published by the government.

The publishing of Social Security numbers and names of deceased individuals enables businesses and other interested parties to verify whether or not a Social Security number is active or whether the account holder is deceased. Social Security numbers are not re-used.

Question: What can I do if I find private information about myself and my living family members published online?

Answer: That depends upon the nature of the "private" information and where you have found it. Most information about living individuals is not considered "private" and it is widely accessible. Names, dates, and places are public, not private, information.

The 1930 U.S. census is available to the public. Thus anyone appearing in it might appear in someone's posted family tree, even though that individual is only say 76 years young.

If you find information about yourself in a WorldConnect family tree file you can contact the submitter at the e-mail address provided on any page of the database and politely request that it be removed from public display. However, unless this information is actually private (LIVING Smith is NOT private) in nature and/or concerns someone born after 1930, it can only be removed through the courtesy of the submitter.

Question: I'm concerned about identity theft and worry that if information about my family is found online it could lead to my identity being stolen.

Answer: "Identify theft" has become a buzz word, but it is a misnomer. Actually in most instances it refers to credit card theft and most of that happens offline.

A recent survey reported on the Better Business Bureau website indicates that the vast majority of so-called "identity theft" cases involve "paper" theft -- not Internet theft. Even the cases that do involve the Internet are the result of computer viruses, spyware, stolen passwords, and "phishing" scams and are not due to information found on genealogy websites. Genealogy websites do not even represent a blip on the radar of this problem.

Question: Banks and credit card companies use my mother's maiden name for identification purposes. Won't having that information available online make it possible for someone to steal my identity?

Answer: Thieves need more than names to get into your bank account. However, you should not use easily found information for identifiers or passwords for your bank, credit card or other financial account information. If you have previously given your mother's maiden name or your birthdate as an account identifier -- call or visit the bank or other institution where you have the account and change the identifying password to one that is not publicly available.

Even if you do not post genealogical information on the Internet, your birthdate and mother's maiden name may be publicly accessible in various places and they should not be used for identification purposes.

Safeguard all data which is actually *personal* and should be kept private -- such as your Social Security number, bank account and credit card numbers. Do not include this type of private information in any of your genealogical records -- on or off the Internet.

adapted in part from a previously published article
in RootsWeb Review: 13 April 2005, Vol. 8, No. 15.