Privacy rules

[Karen Kelsey]

What are the privacy rules concerning postings on this site? The U.S. census is not published for 70 years, which protects the privacy of those who are being studied. However, if I were to locate an obituary from the past 25 years, which might tell about people who are still alive, should that information be sent to someone in a personal e-mail, rather than posted on this forum?  I am unsure if there are any rules that concern this topic.

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

Even though the mere mentioning of a name is probably harmless, I think e-mail would be preferable to be on the safe side. The Swedish text in red near the bottom of each thread roughly says:  
 
Please note that at Anbytarforum you should only write about deceased persons. Postings about living persons may be removed without warning. Of course you can mention the names of living persons who are researching (or have written) sources that are mentioned.
 
It really should be included in the English instructions too! The text in red was added last year when the Swedish Data Inspection Board had criticized that living persons had been mentioned on the board without their consent, and I guess nobody thought of the need to add information in English at the time.

[Thomas Vikander]

If an obituary mentioning people alive at the time of someones death, has been published in a newspaper, or elsewhere, I think that  triggers the A-OK to reproduce its information here. Yes? No?
 
Is it that we cannot write additional information about those living people?  
 
Now, newspapers write about living people all the time. Where may I read why we at Anbytarforum cannot do likewise?

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

No, publication of personal information in printed matter doesn't trigger an OK to publish it online. The reason is that in Sweden, printed media and websites are governed by different laws. To some extent, that makes sense as e.g. a newspaper has a publisher that can be held legally responsible, while at an online forum anyone could write anything about anyone - even anonymously.  
 
The restrictions at Anbytarforum were introduced after the site was severely criticized by the Swedish Data Inspection Board, who insisted that Anbytarforum was breaking the Personal Information Law. E.g., there were special discussions about Saami and gypsy roots, which are much harder to trace than the average Swedish farmer, so cooperating and sharing one's finds is invaluable - but the law states that you mustn't handle any information about a person's race or ethnicity. There was also a section on famous people's roots, that included several living artists etc - the law says that you mustn't handle information that is related to a living person. There are a number of exemptions to this law (like public administration and personal use), but none applies for a forum like this, where anyone can read the discussions, the postings aren't scrutinized before becoming available to the visitors, and the postings are saved indefinitely.  
 
There's been a very long discussion in Swedish on the subject, also a comparatively brief one in English here.  
 
Even though we may not all agree with the Data Inspection Board's view, or how the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies (that runs the site) interprets it, it makes sense that the federation wants to be on the safe side, rather than risk ending up in a law suit.

[Thomas Vikander]

Very interseting. I read the discussion in English from Nov. 2005.
I want to split some hairs here. Does a name, and only a name, by itself constitute personal information about a human, that cannot be posted online in Sweden? If I post an obituary here which contains just the names of surviving relatives, then, that is not allowed?
 
If we are not allowed to post even names then we would have lost the off chance of coming across information that may further aid our research.
 
Which leads me to George Bush.
His name enjoys quite a few hits at Anbytarforum, even though he is alive and has most probably not consented to the use of his personal information.
 Were his name never to have appeared here, I'm sure many genealogists at Anbytarforum with roots in places of Bush's alleged ancestors would not be checking their own family trees for connections. Nor would they be likely researching the veracity of some of Bush's alleged roots in Scandinavia.
 
I can well imagine there has been quite a movement by people taking their information off Anbytarforum since late last year, then?
Perhaps there are Google or Yahoo Groups offshore, and in Swedish, where this information can be posted.
I hate to think so. I'd like to have it all gathered here.

[Mats Ahlgren]

Hi
I got the following answer today from our anbytarvärd.  
 
If I find an obit, newspaper or on internet, I am not allowed to copy the part of the text where living people are mentioned. I shall remove their names and then it is ok to publish. If I uses the possibility, when the obit is published on internet, to create a link to the original web page, I can do so, as the material is then published on a server outside of Anbytarforum.

[Karen Kelsey]

Thanks for the discussion. I was not certain about the rules, and have refrained from quoting any current information except by using e-mails.  I will continue with that practice.