This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 18, 2012. If you have not reviewed it since that date, please do so. You will not receive any other notice of changes to this policy. |
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MyHeritage.com is an online service that allows members to create profiles and family sites in order to build their family trees, share family photos, communicate with family members, and research their family history with advanced research tools (the "Service"). The Service is owned and operated by MyHeritage Ltd. (hereafter 'we', 'our' or 'us'). 'You' or 'your' means an adult user, over age 13, of the Service. The Website is part of a group of websites that we own and operate (the "MyHeritage Website Group") which also includes, among others, the websites WorldVitalRecords.com and FamilyLink.com.
MyHeritage.com recognizes the potential sensitivity and confidentiality of information that may be placed on member family sites, or uploaded to MyHeritage.com, and is firmly committed to protecting your privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices.
By using our Service you consent to the collection and use of your personal information by us as set forth in this privacy policy. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post these changes on this page. Use of the Website following any changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised privacy policy then in effect. If you do not agree to this privacy policy, please do not use the Website.
MyHeritage.com family sites
None of the personal, private information that is uploaded or entered on a MyHeritage.com family site by individual members is viewed by MyHeritage.com staff, or distributed to others outside of your site, except in rare cases involving reported abuse of our use policies or legal statutes, or the need of our customer support staff to provide you with technical assistance at your request. We do collect some data, always with your knowledge and consent, which is used to personalize the site for your convenience and for the benefit of other family members and friends who are included in your site.
You may provide us with additional personal information, including personal information related to you and your family members, in the course of using our Website. By providing us with personal information about another living person, you represent that you have obtained the consent of the person whose personal information you are providing to us or, if the person is under 18 years of age, you represent that you have obtained the consent of the parent or guardian of the person under 18 years of age. In all cases, please ensure that you have made clear to the person (or, if applicable, to the parent/guardian) the implications of the consent.
When you provide us with any personal information, that personal information may be transferred to and stored and processed in other countries which may provide a different level of protection for personal data than in your country of residence. By providing us with personal information, you specifically consent to the transfer, storage and processing of personal information.
In no case is the personal information about individual members sold or otherwise shared with advertisers, sponsors, partners or other 3rd parties. And under no circumstances is this information collected or distributed in any form without your prior knowledge and consent.
At any time you may always delete information that you have posted on the Website. In case you need extra assistance, you may email us at support@myheritage.com to request us to help delete any information you have posted that you wish to have deleted, and your request shall be carried out promptly by our staff.
Who will be able to view your family site?
If your family site is set up on MyHeritage.com as a private site, only those with a valid username and password will have access to your site. Initially, the family site manager (creator) is the only one with access to the site. The site manager may invite new members to the site via email, and only recipients of this invitation will be able to gain access to the site after becoming members in MyHeritage.com. It is then the responsibility of the site members to help keep the site secure by offering password access only to appropriate relatives and friends – those they want to have access to the site. Each user is responsible to protect his or her username & password. If your family site is set up on MyHeritage.com as a public site, then guests can view it without a username and password. A family site can also be set up as a mix between a private and a public site, in which case the private areas of the site as designated by the site manager will be accessible to site members only, and the public areas will be accessible by the general public.
Who will be able to find information in your family site?
Information about deceased individuals in your family tree, including photos, can be found by other people using the research facilities on the websites of the MyHeritage Website Group. These facilities help other people research their past and find relatives that are also in your family tree. If you do not want others to find information in your family tree, you can make your family tree private. To exclude photos from being found by other people, you can make the albums in your family site private.
In addition, other MyHeritage members can receive notifications regarding Smart Matches™ between individuals in their family tree and individuals in your family tree. Smart Matches™ indicate potential matches between the two family trees, i.e. profiles thought to belong to the same person. Matches may also be found on living individuals in your tree. If you are concerned about the privacy of your family tree, to the extent that you don't wish to allow potential relatives to find and view parts of it, you can disable Smart Matches™ for your family tree(s).
Does MyHeritage.com ask for personal information?
Yes. MyHeritage.com asks for your name, email address, and other limited personal information when you sign up to create or participate in a family site. Most of this information may be entered at your option.
How does MyHeritage.com use my personal information?
Our goal is to provide you with the most personalized, relevant, user-friendly Web experience possible. The primary use of all your personal information is to share it with other family members and friends when they visit your site.
We may use the personal information you provide in order to:
- Fulfill the purpose for which you have provided the personal information (for example, to enable us to process your registration or subscription and to provide you with the services and information offered through our Website and which you request).
- Permit you to invite a relative to become a member of your family site and send messages to such members. We will use your relative's personal information in order to send them an invitation with information about how to access the Website and your family site or to allow you to send a message. Your relative will be able to see any personal information provided in connection with your invitation or message, such as your name and profile photo.
- Advise you of new members and new postings on the family site.
- Send you administrative emails, such as about the status of your subscription and account, and about new features or other offers of interest from MyHeritage.com. You can opt out of receiving these emails at any time.
- Address customer service needs and requests.
- Verify and carry out financial transactions relating to payments you make online.
- Handle internal business purposes, such as data analysis, internal statistics and research on how our Website is used, audits, develop new products and services, improve our services, identify usage trends and determine the effectiveness of features and of promotional campaigns.
MyHeritage.com family sites require a subscription and family sites beyond the Basic free plan require paid subscriptions. Payment is required for additional products and services on MyHeritage.com such as family tree posters, family calendars, DNA tests, the backup service, etc. To facilitate payment, MyHeritage.com will request personal credit card information. A shipping address will also be requested when purchasing physical products such as family tree posters and family calendars.
Will MyHeritage.com disclose any of my personal information to third parties?
No. MyHeritage.com will not disclose any of your personal information, except with your knowledge and consent as described below, or as may be required by law, or to protect the rights or property of MyHeritage.com.
Most personal information collected by MyHeritage.com is made available only to other members of your family site. Other circumstances where limited personal information may be disclosed are specifically described when the data is collected.
MyHeritage.com does reserve the right to disclose aggregated user statistics, such as "percent of our users who are female" or "percent of our users who are from Finland" in order to describe our services to prospective partners, affiliates, service providers, advertisers, and other third parties.
Additionally, if you click away from MyHeritage.com to visit the site of any third party advertiser sponsor, affiliate or service provider, you may be asked for your credit card or other personal information in order to purchase or use products and services offered. These companies have their own privacy and data collection practices. MyHeritage.com has no responsibility or liability for these independent policies. You should therefore review their privacy policies carefully if you have concerns about how your information may be used.
Will MyHeritage.com use my information for direct mailings?
Only at your option. MyHeritage.com can automatically send email messages to advise members when new information has been posted to the family Web site. Participating members may also send email to the entire family group or selected individuals, at their discretion. These options are user selectable.
MyHeritage.com may also occasionally send information about special product and service offerings that we feel may be of interest to you. Only MyHeritage.com will send you these direct mailings. If you do not want to receive such mailings, you may opt out at any time.
May I refuse to provide personal information to MyHeritage.com or to accept advertising?
Yes on both counts. Most of the personal information provided to MyHeritage.com may be offered at your own discretion and is intended for family use only. An email address and password are all that are required to participate in a family site. Naturally, withholding some personal information may compromise the usefulness of the site for other family members.
Does MyHeritage.com use IP Addresses and cookies?
IP Addresses: We do use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our Web site. Your IP address is also used to gather broad demographic information such as the geographic distribution of our members.
Cookies: MyHeritage.com makes use of browser cookies to enhance the experience of visiting MyHeritage.com, for example, to avoid displaying certain messages to you more than once, or to optionally save your logon details on your browser so they won't have to be re-entered by you each time you wish to log in, or to remember the display language you selected last time, so you won't have to pick it again each time you visit the site.
Advertiser Cookies: MyHeritage.com may post third party advertising banners on personal family Web sites and on MyHeritage.com general use pages. These ads may contain cookies used primarily to provide data to the advertiser about where visitors are coming from. While we do use cookies in other parts of our Web site as explained above, cookies received with banner ads may or may not be collected or controlled by our company.
Other non-personal information: When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect non-personal information about you, such as the website from which you have come to our Website, your Media Access Control address, your computer type, screen resolution, Operating System version and Internet browser.
MyHeritage.com face recognition demo
Photos uploaded by users to the MyHeritage.com celebrity face recognition demo are not shared with any 3rd party. They remain stored on MyHeritage.com in the member profile of the user who uploaded them. Any user who uploads photos can choose to delete the photos or keep them private so that only he or she can access them.
Users who wish to make use of our "Tell a friend" feature to email their friends a link to a photo they just uploaded with its celebrity resemblances, should be aware that the link to their photo will remain valid for up to 2 days at most, after which it will no longer work. Users are advised against posting links from the celebrity face recognition demo on the Internet, as these links will become invalid within 2 days, or sooner.
What else should I know about privacy?
The following encapsulates a few key issues mentioned in context above:
Member Profiles: and profile data is collected at our site at the users’ option. This information may include age and gender plus country of residence, preferred language, and other personal preferences that can be viewed by other family members who have access to the site. Some of this statistical demographic information may also be used on an aggregate basis to deliver offers and information to specific members, or to customize a visitor’s experience. In no case is this information given to a third party. MyHeritage.com controls the distribution of all information at the site.
Opt-Out: Our site provides users the ability to opt-out of receiving MyHeritage.com emails which may contain advertising from our partners and sponsors. We always reserve the right to contact members about service or payment issues, new features to improve the service, etc.
May I delete or deactivate my account and what happens to my personal information if I do?
Yes you may. MyHeritage.com gives users the following options for removing their information from our database or to no longer receive our service.
- Individual family members may request to be removed from a specific family site through their site's Site manager.
- Individual members may request to be completely removed from MyHeritage.com and all family sites they are participating in, by editing their account and clicking the link "Delete my account" found there.
- A Site manager of a family site may request to delete the entire family site, from MyHeritage.com technical support.
Changes and Modifications
MyHeritage.com gives users the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided.
- Any member may modify his/her personal information, including passwords at any time by logging into MyHeritage.com, visiting his or her member profile and editing it, to update the information therein.
- At any time, members may delete or modify information and items such as news, photos, sounds, or other files which they personally have posted to their site. A family site’s Site manager is able to delete and modify all items submitted by members of the site.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact:
MyHeritage.com Customer Support
PO Box 50, Or Yehuda 60250, Israel