Privacy Policy & Terms of Use
... The small print!
Privacy Policy
Terms of UsePrivacy PolicyThe primary objective in genealogy is to identify all ancestors and descendants in a particular family tree and to collect personal data on them. As a minimum, this data includes the individual's name and the date/location of birth, marriage, and death. In order to support research by other genealogists, this data is often published on internet genealogy websites. As a genealogist, therefore, I may have collected much personal information on you and your family from a variety of sources. The privacy of this information is important to me and I assure you there is a privacy policy in place for the Mitchell Family Online website with which you will be satisfied. Most of us would prefer not to have to worry about our personal data but, in this day and age, we must use caution to prevent misuse of the information. Identity theft and credit fraud are the worst problems. There is concern that information distributed to distant relatives or put on a genealogy websites makes it easier for unscrupulous individuals to commit invasions of privacy or other frauds. However, the personal information that the identity thieves and credit fraud perpetrators want are full names, social security numbers, dates and places of birth, current occupation/employment data, and bank/credit card account numbers. One or two facts alone (e.g., your name and/or your mother's maiden name) are not enough information to cause damage. Names and RelationshipsMany genealogy programs can suppress the names of living individuals and substitute "living" or "still living". I designed this website so it does suppress the names of living individuals. If you are aware that someone is living and their name is shown here, please let me know, so I can remedy the situation. Note: Only members who have a login and are logged in to the site will be able to view living individual information. This will sometimes be restricted to only their branch of their family. Back to IndexPhotographsPhotographs of living individuals are considered personal data and are normally suppressed. However, if the individual so chooses, a photograph can be tagged as "always visible". Before any photograph can be included in this website, permission is obtained from the owner of a photograph. Where, for any reason, all reasonable steps have been exhausted and the original owner cannot be found or contacted, any legitimate objection to the display of the photograph will result in immediate removal from the site until such objection can be addressed. Permission is also obtained from living individuals in a photograph if ...
The statements, "Photo Courtesy of.." and/or "Used with Permission" (or similar), combined with the owner's name, identifies compliance with these requirements. Back to IndexPersonal Data SuppressionTo ensure the privacy of living individuals, our internet genealogy website always suppresses the personal data of living individuals from viewing by the general public. Personal data includes, but is not limited to, birth/marriage dates/locations, photographs, notes, and biographies. Note: If a relative does not want their personal data to reside in a website server database in spite of password protection, that individual and linked descendants cannot be accommodated by the security program. They will reluctantly have to be completely excluded from the website. Back to IndexPersonal Data AccessPersonal data access is restricted to family members who must login to access the normally suppressed personal data of living individuals. At the discretion of the site owner, access may be restricted to their own family branch only. You must first read the Mitchell Family Online Privacy Policy, agree with the Mitchell Family Online Terms of Use, and register for a user account. When registering for your user account, you must indicate how you are related to our family. If you are not related, you will not normally be granted a user account unless a very special reason is identified. In this case, a temporary or time-limited account can be made available. With registration, you may only be granted access to your unique family branch within our database. If your access account provides the facility to add or modify records, you must please notify me, so that I can update the off-line personal computer database which is used to populate the website. Failure to notify me, may result in your data not being preserved across a database refresh. Your access may, in some circumstances, be restricted to:
Note: To see the personal data of a spouse's family branch, married users may have to log in with their spouse's user name and password. If any family branch individual does not want their suppressed personal data accessed, the security design allows a "lock" to be put on their data. This does, however, preclude registration of that individual. Spouse's may need an ID to access their family line and, if spouses are not comfortable in using each other's ID's then, a user may need to request a 2nd ID in order to be able to view their spouse's living cousins. If you consider using your spouse's user ID a security violation, please request a second login account that will be restricted to your spouse's family. Back to IndexPersonal Data SecurityPersonal information collected by me in trust (email/street addresses, phone numbers, etc.) or as a result of an application for membership, a suggestion/comment, or from our visitors guestbook, will not be divulged to any person or entity for any purpose whatsoever unless we are legally bound to prevent or detect a crime. You should be aware, however, that much of this information is already in the public domain and may be readily available to others using internet search engines (e.g., Yahoo People Search, Google.com, Birthday.com, etc.). Back to IndexTerms of Use
Back to Index RestrictionsBy using this site, you agree to the following terms of use and any changes thereto:
Back to Index Disclaimers
... and finallyWe hope that you enjoy your visit to our website and that you find it interesting and fulfilling. We are always pleased to hear from visitors, so please feel free to leave any comments in our Guestbook. |