Presenter: E Randol Schoenberg; Jan Meisels Allen
Format: Download MP3 Audio

Privacy remains a huge issue for many genealogists and their family members, and the legal landscape concerning records access is constantly changing. Personal genealogy websites, as well as online collaborative trees offer different levels of privacy protections. The panelists will discuss the varied approaches to the question of privacy, focusing especially on ethical considerations. For example, how should a genealogist respond if someone says she does not want to be on your online tree? Should minors be allowed to use online genealogy platforms? Can the right to privacy ever be reconciled with online collaborative genealogy? What are the risks and legal issues for using DNA results for genealogy? As genealogists increasingly utilize public, or semi-public online collaborative genealogy platforms, these questions are becoming more common.