The upside of the FamilyTreeNow “genealogy “website is that it’s completely free to use.
The downside is that anyone who can spell your first and last name can use the site to look up your birthday, age, probable family members and a list of current and past addresses.
If that’s cool with you, do nothing.
Assuming it’s not, here’s how to make yourself a little harder to stalk.
As the Atlantic’s Kaveh Waddel notes, FamilyTreeNow is just one site in a sprawling meshwork of people-search sites that compile, store and sell personal data. Others include WhitePages, Spokeo and Instant Checkmate.
If you’re interested in checking in on how to opt out of the sites above (you do), you’ll wanna take a look at this edifying story from Life Hacker.
As for FamilyTreeNow, head to the site’s Opt Out of Records page and let them know that you’re not a robot and that you’d like to remove your info from their creepy website. On the next page, find yourself by typing in your name without giving any additional info (if possible) and click the opt out button.
Although we were a little skeptical FamilyTreeNow would really remove information within a 48-hour window like they promised, it appears that they were actually telling the truth.
Try finding your humble correspondent.
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