New Privacy Policy, New Curator Powers

The Privacy Policy now states that both Geni Employees and Geni Curators can both View and Edit Private Profiles.

Also, for Public Profiles, for who can edit, it now says: "Your Collaborators Your Relatives Geni Curators Geni Employees" - so - will Pros no longer be able to edit all Public Profiles on their Tree?

The difference between Who Can Edit for Private Profiles versus Public is, Private says "Your Family Group" where Public says "Your Relatives".
1) How is Geni defining "Your Family Group" versus "Your Relatives"
2) Note it says "Your Family Group" and does NOT include those outside your family group but in the Family Group of the Profile. -- When is Geni going to learn to state things accurately?

Also note - For "Who is in each group?" under Private Profiles it says "Living Relatives Minors" - BUT I thought due to MyHeritage requirements ALL living Profiles - relatives or not -- were now Private. Has this been changed (again)?

http://help.geni.com/entries/23231182-What-permissions-do-Curators-... spells out the ability of Curators to now view and edit Private Profiles plus their ability to approve Pending merges.

I have started a separate discussion to discuss Curators new ability to "approve merges" / Merge private Profiles, because I think that is so important. http://www.geni.com/discussions/120729

Privacy Policy now includes "By default, only your relatives, Geni Curators and Geni Employees can see your full profile." - So it is not just the unclaimed Private Profiles they can see.

Wondering:
How many employees does Geni currently have?
How many Curators are there currently?

Lois, i think it should be "curators only" discussion. Then i would add my comment.

Jaak Tulp - this affects everybody!! I am not a curator, so I would not even be able to see that discussion. Do not really like fact that curators have private "curator only" discussions that we are unable to see. Definitely think a discussion of the implications of a Privacy Policy that is in effect for All Geni Members should not be hidden from most of the members. Can you explain why you think it should be??

Private User I'm going to repeat what's already been said on this discussion.

You need to address your questions to Customer Care.

Erica Howton - Charles Edmonds posted the Help Topic I link to above, dated Feb. 26 - and I assume it is his choice that it says "Topic is closed for comments." Also assume it is his choice that nothing has been posted so far in Announcements in the Help Section about these changes. To me, this suggests he is not open to answering questions on it.

I tried to move this discussion from MyHeritage snaps up Geni - since I thought it wasn't really relevant to that topic. The comments made there, on this topic, start with: http://www.geni.com/discussions/115406?msg=855900

and are still continuing in that thread as well - currently looks like especially about Deceased Private Profiles being changed to Public (can they/will Curators do that, etc. -- see that thread if interested in what was said).

Customer Service There are questions on this discussion perhaps you can assist in answering.

My thanks for the attention.

Private User All i can say is that i can not say anything, because there are things that only curators should be concerned about. Still some answers - i dont know of the change that PROs are not allowed to change public profiles any more. I guess they still can. Family group are the managers who have accepted your request to add them to your family group, that is allowed you to see the private profiles they manage. The managers might not be even close to you. Relatives are managers within your max extended family, that is up to 4th cousins+partners. Anyone else could correct me..

Lois, we're actually waiting for Geni to make the public announcement of these changes - they first changed the policy documents, then they gave the new permissions, and I expect that the next thing they'll do is a public announcement of the changes.

I don't want to upstage them - and besides, they have more information than me about the changes and what they intend with them!

Thanks, Harald. (little quibble: http://help.geni.com/entries/23231182-What-permissions-do-Curators- says "Charles Edmonds
posted this on Feb 26 15:23" - so before the Privacy Policy was updated.)

The Privacy Policy says "Updated on February 28, 2013" , so far no Announcement at top of Home Page nor in Help under Announcements nor in e-mail to me,etc. - and both the old and the new Privacy Policy include the statement:

"Your use of the Website indicates your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and any then-current revisions." -- So -

One has to wonder if Geni is purposely delaying Announcing the change so folks will already have used the website after the Profile Policy was changed, thus apparently officially indicating their acceptance of it (IMO very tricky, if this is their motive).

The following two questions are directed at anyone who has an answer from their perspective of being a lawyer, or to Geni management. Any other Geni-user who would like to comment is welcome - but I understand most of us users and even the Curators do not know.
1) If someone does not want to accept having all curators able to view their Profile and all the Private Profiles they manage - what can they do? By having posted here, after the change went into effect, have I indicated my acceptance? For others, does simply logging in count as "use of the Website" and indicate their acceptance? Is there any way to indicate non-acceptance? Any options at all?
2) All those folks who do not log on -- doe that mean they have NOT accepted the policy, and what does that imply??

Private User - I'm sorry, but I really can't understand your problem.
What is your problem here - is something wrong with your tree or are somebody doing changes in your tree without your request or what?

How can we help you?

BR

Lauri

I guess it is a common problem of human psychology - wont do him/herself and doesn´t let it be done by others. It is the problem of most inactive managers here. Look...what the curator thinks of him/herself coming do my playground tiding my mess up. I´m sorry if it was too harsh, otherwise it could be interpreted wrong.

Private User Thank you for pointing out that we need to update those FAQ's we will get on that today.

Your use of the website is defined by having a account not by logging in. Our terms of use also state that you agree to be bound by any chance we make when we post it.

If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to send a ticket to customer service and we will answer them for you.

Charles - could you explain what is meant by "Relatives" at http://www.geni.com/company/privacy

That term doesn't seem to be defined anywhere. I suspect that in "Who can edit profiles?" it means something like "any Geni user connected to the same tree as the profile in question". That's not intuitively obvious. Is that interpretation correct? But in "Who is in each group?" I think it means something wider than Geni users.

Then again, on the same page it says: "By default, only your relatives, Geni Curators and Geni Employees can see your full profile." In that sentence, does "relatives" mean some smaller group of people? Perhaps family group? Or does it really mean any Geni user connected to the same tree?

Also what does it mean on that same page where it says: "Only the people in your family tree can log in to your tree." What does it mean to log into a tree?

Thanks.

In the few days since the new policy and curator powers were introduced, many many long awaited merges were concluded - at least at my limited point of view. Maybe Charles can give us broader statistics. That is GREAT.

I got several responses in the last few days. None are opposing, most are quitely happy with it, and some are really nice, for example:

"thank you Itai for this merge. My mother is very happy to reconnect with this family that moved to Israel. Many were killed in the war, but this branch survived and we lost contact. Thanks again for the mitzvah- shabbot shalom!"

It brings me back to the point that the main issue in a site like Geni is assisting the common users, especially the less-technical ones, in getting along with it - to achieve the goal of a single tree. Privacy is a must do, but not the goal.

Thanks to the Geni people, both those who led the way, and those who did the hard work!

Itai - were these merges you did each in response to a family member of the profile(s) of one (or both?) side contacting you and requesting your help, or your offering your help to them, or ??

Lois - I'm not limited to the family group; I can even say that I fight the duplications wherever I see them... Many of them are in small, disconnected trees, which are very important - because this is where the living people (claimed profiles) are!

I rarely get a request - 99% of the work is my initiative. And as I wrote before, if I inspect the response distribution: No negative responses at all; Majority is silent (Abandoned trees?); And several very encouraging ones, like the example I brought.

My conclusion - people are eager to get assistance in connecting trees.

Lois,

People are eager to get connected to the big tree. I have in the last three days gone and helped out people in my family group complete merges that they have requested and could not do. I have done this as a service to them as well as to help their own family group out.

Some of those that I helped were added as an extended family member in my family group. At the time that they were added to my family group, it was required to be able to do merges between our profiles.

I have received messages of thanks from a few of those that I helped out.

Kevin

OF course you have, Kevin & Itai.

Most "pending incomplete" merges I've seen are due to inactive or casual users, and it's very frustrating not to have the connection.

Private User your question about relatives.
Relatives are.
1) your near relatives (your real family) in your tree:
http://www.geni.com/list?group=immediate_family
(all users from this group can see your profile)
2) your extended family group (your tree):
http://www.geni.com/list?group=family
(all users from this group can see your profile)
3) all other Geni user you accepted into your family group (they are since it also "relatives"), the list of them is here:
http://www.geni.com/account_settings/family
(all users from this group can see your profile)
From the upper part of: http://www.geni.com/account_settings/family you can adjust the amount of users in 2).
And all these users can edit also your profile if you allow it here:
http://www.geni.com/account_settings/permissions/ (second choice).

Lauri - thanks that seems to be a definition of "family tree".

My question is more about understanding the privacy policy at http://www.geni.com/company/privacy

In particular, "who can edit public profiles" lists:
Your Collaborators
Your Relatives
Geni Curators
Geni Employees

If Your Relatives = Your Family Group - that seems too few people in that list. Lots of people beyond collaborators, family group, curators and employees can edit public profiles - though perhaps not all fields.

Elsewhere on that page it says for example: "You can block specific relatives from viewing your full profile or messaging you." If relatives means family group, that sentence doesn't tell the full story - because you can block any Geni user, whether they are in your family group.

Hence the confusion.

Private User Your "Relatives" is yes "Family Group member / Family Tree member"

Thanks again Lauri - that leaves the privacy page as being somewhat difficult to decipher