Fact Check: Family tree website gains controversy over personal details

A website allows anyone to look up the personal information of police officers, which can be used for nefarious purposes.

The facts: A warning to law enforcement officers was posted on the Facebook page “Survive the Streets: A Page for Cops,” saying “The amount of info and the accuracy of it is terrifying.”

The website, FamilyTreeNow.com, allows users to look up a person by name, address or city. The site then pulls up information about the named person from public records, such as age, month and year of birth, immediate family members and “associates,” and past and current addresses. The searches are provided for free, and a user doesn’t even have to register.

But the site does not specifically target law enforcement, Snopes.com notes, although anyone who knows enough about a police officer could potentially retrieve more information about that person.

Fortune magazine reports that many on Twitter have pointed out that FamilyTreeNow.com poses a personal safety risk, especially to those who have been in abusive relationships or work in sensitive professions.

People whose information appears on the website can supposedly “opt out” of having their information displayed, but the site says it may take up to 48 hours to remove the information. And as Money magazine points out, it is unclear whether your information is deleted or merely hidden.

The site’s “About” page states that FamilyTreeNow.com was launched in 2014 by some technology veterans who like taking services that typically cost money and making them free.

The Washington Post reports that the owner of the site is Dustin Weirich, a Sacramento entrepreneur who did not respond to an emailed request for comment about his business. Google records list a person of same name as the founder of a dating site, DateHookUp, which has drawn unverified complaints by users on a site called RipOff Review.

Despite the innocuous “FamilyTree” designation, the site warns that users might be shocked at some of the information that comes up. But as Snopes.com points out, it is neither the first nor the only site to dispense personal information for public consumption: Websites such as Intelius and Spokeo offer similar services, but those carry a charge for the information. Other databases, such as Lexis/Nexis, allow users with paid subscriptions to look up similar forms of information.