Question/answer » What about privacy?

Data from living persons may not be processed (and published) in connection with the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG) without the express consent of the persons themselves.

Genealogy is a fascinating pastime and the thirst for knowledge will never be satisfied, but some control is important so that the people whose history we want to preserve are not offended. It is the responsibility of the author of the publication on Genealogy Online to oversee these privacy aspects!

Genealogy Online supports the family tree researcher by filtering data from living persons. When a GEDCOM file is supplied, it is determined on the basis of a set of rules whether the person is most likely deceased. If this cannot be determined, it is assumed that the person is still alive and the name and any other information of this person will not be published.

If one of the following rules applies, a person is considered deceased:

  • a date of death / burial is known
  • the person was born more than 110 years ago
  • the person has a spouse who was born more than 120 years ago
  • the person was married more than 90 years ago
  • the person has children who were born / baptized / died / buried more than 100 years ago
  • the person has children who were married more than 70 years ago
  • the person's father or mother was married more than 180 years ago
  • the father or mother was buried / died more than 100 years ago
  • one of the person's brothers or sisters were born / baptized / died / buried more than 100 years ago

If you have supplied a GEDCOM file and some people have specifically given permission for the publication of their data (they can, however, withdraw it at any time), you can set this via the administration page, their data will then be published.

It is permitted under the AVG to show the data of living persons to a nominable group of family members, acquaintances or friends. To this end, the author can set up a gateway and invite people by providing personal access data. It is the author's responsibility to point out the privacy aspects to the invitees.

Report a violation

If you come across your own data in one of the publications on Genealogy Online, please contact the author of the relevant publication to object (and request that the data be removed).

If the author does not respond and / or does not delete the data, please contact the manager of Genealogy Online. The administrator will remind the author of his duties. In case the author refuses or does not respond, the entire publication will be deleted.

In your contact with the author and administrator always include the addresses of the pages that you object to.


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