Privacy of living individuals not associated with WikiTree

Question

When a profile is created for a living individual, the profile is unlisted by default, and the unlisted page states: "Information on Unlisted profiles can only be viewed by friends and family members on the Trusted List."

The WikiTree Privacy Policy states: "Members can add personal information about their living family members ..."

Both of those statements are based on the assumption that a profile for a living individual would only ever be created by someone who is related to that individual. But that's not a reasonable assumption, because there is nothing stopping a WikiTree member from creating a profile for any living person, whether related to them or not. Then, as manager of that profile, the member can add other individuals (who are not necessarily friends or family members) to the trusted list for that profile.

Therefore I suggest that the Unlisted profile page be updated to remove the phrase "friends and family" and the Privacy Policy be updated to state "Members can add personal information about any living person without that person's knowledge or consent ..."

Alternatively, WikiTree should implement mechanisms to prohibit the creation of profiles for living persons that are not connected to the profile of the member creating it.

The reason I am concerned about this is because there is a member here on WikiTree who has been busy creating a WikiTree profile for virtually every living individual (more than several thousand profiles at this point) in our neighbourhood (including children) none of whom are remotely related to him, without their knowledge or consent.

I only discovered this when I received email notification that someone had created a profile for my sister (because she has the same last name as me). Obviously if my sister wanted a profile on WikiTree I would have created it already. Obviously my sister can contact WikiTree to have her profile removed (and she has), but what about my several thousand neighbours?

Comments

Regarding this paragraph, and specifically the highlighted words:

Therefore I suggest that the Unlisted profile page be updated to remove the phrase "friends and family" and the Privacy Policy be updated to state "Members can add personal information about any living person without that person's knowledge or consent ..."

did you mean to propose that members CAN'T add such profiles, rather than that members CAN add such profiles?

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I would prefer that the policy as written (members can create profiles for living relatives, but not total strangers) can be and is enforced. If that isn't possible or desirable, then the policy should be re-worded to reflect reality.

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C, the policy is correct as it stands. As Ros and Linda have suggested, it can and will be enforced if violations are reported through the Problems with Members process.

Answer 1

What you describe is strictly against WikiTree Policy.  

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Living_People

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Privacy_Policy#Information_on_Living_Family_Members

Please use this process to report the issue. the https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Problems_with_Members

Answer 2

There is a policy for 'Living Notables', that only 'immediate family members, which we identify for these purposes as a spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, sibling, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, or 1st cousin,' can be on the Trusted List.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Living_Notables#Trusted_List_access

Regarding the living people in your neighbourhood, WikiTree has a policy which states 'You are welcome to create profiles for your living family members if they're adults (see: Help:Children on WikiTree) and you have no reason to think that they would object. Simply add them as you would other family members.'

If you are concerned that some of your neighbours would object, think about the Problems with Members process  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Problems_with_Members, which may lead you to file a Mentor Intervention Request.

Comments

WikiTree has a policy which states 'You are welcome to create profiles for your living family members

The problem is that the "family members" part is not enforced in any way, so the policy should be changed to state "You are welcome to create profiles for any living adult".

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If someone is creating profiles for Living people that are not relatives, that is a violation of Wikitree Policy. 

Just because something is not enforced doesn’t mean that you change the policy.  It is hard to enforce things like that on ‘private’ profiles that only Admin can see, unless it is reported.  The rules should not be changed to state that anyone can create or update profile of any living person.

Living Notables are a little different, and adding a ‘relative’ or two to those profiles may be valid, so that they can get connected to the tree by others. 

I agree with Ros that if a member has been adding people from a ‘neighborhood’ that are not relatives and mainly living people, without their knowledge, the Problems with Mentors needs to be filed, ending with a MIR being filed.

Answer 3

C, can you provide the link to the specific policy page under discussion?

Comments

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Living_People

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My question would be how is this person getting enough information for the living people to be able to create a sourced profile?

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The Help:Living People page does not contain the statement ("The WikiTree Privacy Policy states: "Members can add personal information about their living family members ..."") that C makes in his original question.

I haven't found any Help page that specifically states any policy restrictions on who can create profiles for living non-members (other than for children under 13).

If we do have any such restrictions on members creating profiles for non-family (and how is non-family defined?) individuals, we should have an existing Help page that states those restrictions clearly.

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See this link:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Privacy_Policy#Information_on_Living_Family_Members

It says

Members can add personal information about their living family members, however: ...

followed by a number of restrictions.

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Thanks for that link, Jim!