INDIANAPOLIS -- You’ve probably never heard about this genealogy website but it certainly knows a lot about you. Family Tree Now claims to have one of the largest collections of genealogy records anywhere, available for free to anyone who wants to use it.
And it might show a lot more information than you want to be readily available to the public.
“FamilyTreeNow.com was launched in 2014 by some technology veterans who like taking services that typically cost money and making them free so everyone can use them.”
The site claims their information comes from “U.S. public records sources, including property, business, historical and current records.”
Although the information you can find is technically available to the public, this site makes it easy for anyone to have immediate access to your personal information, all in one easy-to-find place, at no cost to them.
All you have to know is a person’s age, state and date of birth. From there, you have access to relatives, associates and even current and past addresses.
The site claims to have over 1.6 billion records in their 'living people' database, compiled from hundreds of sources from the past 40 years.
"They include current and past addresses, possible aliases, all known relatives, and phone numbers. There is no other database like this on any other genealogy sites. If you need to find someone that's currently alive or recently deceased, they will be in this database."
That includes any thing they have listed here:
Unlike most public profile search sites, Family Tree Now doesn't require you to pay a fee or create an account to access that information. And that's great for genealogy enthusiasts or someone harmlessly trying to look up some of their family history - but what has people concerned, is how easy it would be for someone who might want to harass or harm another person to get their information.
Now if you find having all of this information about yourself so readily available concerning, you’re not alone.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to “Opt Out” of having your records on their site.
Just follow the steps below.
1. Go to HERE and click "Begin Opt Out Procedure."
2. Search for yourself.
3. Click on the record detail and verify that it's really you, not just someone else with the same name.
4. Click the big red "Opt Out" button.
5. Allow up to 48 hours for your request to be processed, and your record will be removed from all places on the website.
6. If you have multiple records listed - repeat these steps.
