Friday, February 6, 2009

Geni Enhances Privacy Controls

Los Angeles-based Geni, an online genealogy and social networking site, has tightened up the firm's privacy settings, saying last night that it has added new settings which allows users to restrict viewing of profiles of kids younger than 13, and changed the firm's "family groups" defaults to a smaller set of relatives. In the new child privacy changes, Geni explained that it will allow you to control the viewing and editing of profiles you manage for those under 13 years of ago, so that only relatives and inlaws can find their profiles; in addition, no profiles for kids under 13 will show up in the site's search results. In a similar move, the firm said it will restrict it's "family group" function--reducing the number of people automatically included in family groups. The firm said that move will provide families with more privacy, and reduce the amount of "noise" received from relatives. Geni operates an online site which allows users to create family trees and share family news, and is venture backed by Charles River Ventures and the Founders Fund.