I have my site registered as "Private Site, open to members only". I have the SmartMatch option enabled. 3 questions:
1) what (if any) information on my family site is open and accessible to other members sharing a SmartMatch with my site?
2) is this dependent on whether or not I have confirmed the match, or does the very exictence of the match enable the owner of the "matching site" to access info on my site ?
3) is there any way I can limit the accessibility in such a case (except disabling SmartMatching completely) ?
Is it really possible for a "smart-matcher" to copy over ones entire tree with photographs and all to his own - without me knowing aboaut it or eaven ciónfirming the match? I had this experience and feel very uneasy about it. Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again?
I'm aware of (and using) the option to prevent copying of photos.
But what is worrying me is all the rest of the site content. I hope someone from MyHeritage will explain to us if anybody having a SmartMatch with a person in my tree (perhaps even without my confirming the correctness of the match /?) can view (and thus also copy) all the contents of my family tree (OK, let's assume - without the photos) ?
If this really is the case then the whole option of having a site registered as "Private" seems pretty meaningless.
I'm not trying to be rude, but could you please explain to me the reason for all the privacy? Are you ashamed of the relatives in your family tree? I have never been able to grasp the reasoning behind not being proud of your family and being so secretive about your family tree. Could you explain it to me? Thanks. Charles Herndon.
Hi and thanks a lot Joel for joining this discussion - which I mean is very urgent and not only concerns your privacy rights - but also the reliability of MyHeritage.com as a serious ground for genealogical research. If it - as it turns out - is possible to copy the total - or considerable parts - of the content of another person's family tree (without his or her knowledge - leave out confirmation!!), the building of trees surely quickly grows out of controll and the smart-match-idea becomes totally useless - even a obstacle - for any geneologist with the least ambition to have controll of the data that underpin his or her research.
My experience is that regestering your sight as "Private" and not allowing copying of photos IS not only "pretty" but totally meaningless!!!
I surely hope someone responsible fron MyHeritage would give this matter a serious thought.
/Annette Ewald
Hi Annette and Eric.
I'm aware of (and using) the option to prevent copying of photos.
But what is worrying me is all the rest of the site content. I hope someone from MyHeritage will explain to us if anybody having a SmartMatch with a person in my tree (perhaps even without my confirming the correctness of the match /?) can view (and thus also copy) all the contents of my family tree (OK, let's assume - without the photos) ?
If this really is the case then the whole option of having a site registered as "Private" seems pretty meaningless.
Smart Matching works by comparing family trees. If you enabled SmartMatches for your tree, then even if the site is private, it will be included in the database, and, if SmartMatches are found between your tree and another tree, the system will notify both users. You will both be able to confirm or reject the match, compare trees and copy details and photos from each other (if you are Premium users) for that specific match. You can, as was mentioned in this discussion, disable the option for other users to copy photos from you.
If you mark your tree as private, the other user will not be able to compare trees with you because they cannot view your tree as a guest- they will see Private for all people in your tree. They will still be able to confirm the specific match and copy details from it.
I hope that this helps you understand, please let me know if you hae any more questions regarding this.
If you mark your tree as private, the other user will not be able to compare trees with you because they cannot view your tree as a guest- they will see Private for all people in your tree. They will still be able to confirm the specific match and copy details from it"
I understand what this means if your tree is private but what does it mean for the other settings? Can people copy your whole tree through 1 match? Could you pell it out for us MyHeritage please?
I did a thorough check of all your information on this before uploading my tree however from what I am reading above things are not what they seem
This is the way I think it works on a private tree:
Say you have a match for someone. You will get that person's information with all other people connected to them marked private. Should you also have a match with that person's son, the new match will give the son's info, but the parent who was the previous match will be marked private on the second match. So it is on down the line until potentially the entire tree has been copied one person at a time.
