Stolen data published by a stranger

Started by Gregor Olawsky on Sunday, February 26, 2012
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2/26/2012 at 4:21 AM

Hello,

I have contacted Geni.com some time ago to inform them about a violation of "Terms of Use", because a user, whom I don't know (I won't tell his name here), stole my data (more than 1200 names!) from a competing and from my private website and published them here as his own. He also published names of living persons who don't like their names and dates published by a stranger.

My mail was answered from Geni.com: "In my last message you have not given us proof of anything that Florian has done wrong. As I said according to his tree he is a distant relative." It is strange that Geni.com tells me, that he is a distant relative while he didn't tell me that, when I blamed him for not being related. Besides that: No relative is allowed to publish names and dates of living people without permission.

> Prohibited Content and/or activities includes, but is not limited to Content and/or
> activities that, in the sole discretion of Geni:
> attempting to impersonate another Member or person or POSTING ANY THIRD
> PARTY'S (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY FAMILY MEMBER'S)
> INFORMATION ON THE GENI SERVICES WITHOUT PERMISSION.

My opion of Geni.com has suffered a lot from this case. I used to recommend Geni.com to my colleagues of two mailinglists. But seeing that this violation is tolerated by Geni.com I am thinking about sending a general warning to these mailinglists.

Can anybody give a good advice how a violation of "Terms of Use" can be handled in a different way? I don't want to take legal steps if there are other (easier) ways.

Kind regards

Gregor Olawsky

2/26/2012 at 2:56 PM

There is a 'report' function on each profile so you could go to the profile of the person who has created this tree with your family for which he hasn't got permission and in the actions tab in the top right click 'report'

2/26/2012 at 3:32 PM

What is your ultimate objective in regards to the potential breach? Profile removal? Get properly credited as the originating source? Privatization of sensitive data? Have the violator banned?

Also, since you state that you do not want to publish his name here—someone named "Florian" is still present in your text—perhaps that's someone else? It could however be misunderstood in the context of the quote.

2/27/2012 at 11:46 AM

@Terry: I will try that first, but I already wrote an email to Geni.com so I wonder whether they will react in a different way.

@Olav: Wow, many questinons! ;-)
I start from behind: It is "Florian" (it was not planned to mention his name, but it happened accidentally - unfortunately I cannot alter the text)

> Have the violator banned?

No, because he also has published his own data.

> Get properly credited as the originating source?

That would be a good start. I mean, if there are people researching the name Olawsky, I would really like, that they contact me, because I have even much more namens in my data base. If they contact him, he won't be able to help at all.

> Privatization of sensitive data?

Deleting the names of living people is absolutely necessary! (I normally don't publish information of people whose children still live!). And my parents definitely don't like to be mentioned by a stranger.

> Profile removal?

I would like that he removes all the information concerning my family. He can still save them on his computer, but I don't want them to be published by him who is a stranger to me.

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