Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Yet another world family tree

A press release today announced David O. Sacks, former Chief Operating Office of PayPal, has launched a new, free web site, Geni.com, aimed at creating a family tree of the entire world. The site offers a simplified interface for entering family information, and through a sort of mulit-level marketing approach, users invite a family member to join by adding their e-mail address, then that person invites someone, and they invite someone, and so on and so and so on. "Each tree continues to grow as relatives invite other relatives." As one concerned about casting seeds to the wind on the Internet, I checked the site's privacy policy, which assures us that only the people in your family tree can see your tree or individual profile, and you can further restrict viewing of your profile through account settings. Even so, you have no way of knowing who has been invited down the road and who is viewing your personal information.

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