Family sites at MyHeritage.com are automatically protected with privacy settings that prevent guests (non-members) from viewing sensitive information about living family members in family trees, such as first names and email addresses.
In case the default privacy settings are not strict enough for you, the steps below will help you make your site and content private.
It is important to understand what type of audience may visit your family site. There are four possible types of users for any family site:
Webmaster (Site Creator) – this is the person who created the family site and who is the site’s Webmaster (main Site Manager).
Site Manager – these are family members and friends who have been invited to the family site, typically with fewer privileges than the webmaster, but still able to contribute content to the site. (To see what else Site Managers can do, click here)
Site Members – these are family members and friends that have been invited to the family site, typically with limited privileges but still able to contribute content to the site.
Guests (e.g. the general public) – these are visitors who are not members or site managers on the family site. Guests are not allowed to add content and the content they are allowed to see is restricted.
You can change your family site privacy settings at any time. In order to do so, please take the following actions:
1. Log into your family site.
2. Click on your name in the upper right-hand side of the screen.
3. Select ‘My Privacy’.
4. On the ‘My Privacy’ page, click on ‘My member preferences’ options on the left. This section helps you control what guests can see about your MyHeritage member profile.
5. Click the ‘Access’ section under the name of the family site on the left-hand menu to set whether limited information can be viewed by guests when they visit it.
6. Under the ‘Content’ section, you can select how your family tree and photos can be searched by other MyHeritage members.
7. You can also manage your cookie preferences, by clicking on "My cookie preferences", and then on "Cookie settings" on the page that opens. A pop-up will open with further explanations of each cookie type we have and the option to disable some of them.
Note: To receive a detailed explanation of all privacy settings, please click on the information icon next to the setting:
If you would like to change settings that allow your site members to edit the family tree online or add content to your family site, please check the following FAQ article: What privileges do my site members have?
To learn more about this topic, read this article on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base: Managing Your Privacy on MyHeritage. On the MyHeritage Knowledge Base, you'll find additional articles, webinars, and how-to videos that can help you master your genealogy skills.