Safe Sharing & Research Collaboration

Ancestry research can involve sensitive personal and family information. Share intentionally.

Do not post publicly

• Full names plus birthdates of living people.
• Addresses, phone numbers, personal emails, government IDs, or account numbers.
• Raw DNA data files or private account exports.

Safer collaboration

• Share citations and source locations.
• Use redacted screenshots.
• Use view-only sharing links when possible.
• Use pseudonyms when public attribution is not necessary.
• Keep DNA results and private family conclusions out of public forms unless the owner has reviewed the risk.

Before you submit

1. Remove names, dates, addresses, school details, medical details, and contact information for living people.
2. Replace private documents with a short source description whenever the document itself is not safe to publish.
3. Separate the public question from the private evidence. The public page may only need the claim, source type, and review need.
4. Choose the least public lane that still helps: private notes first, then Community Notes, then Fact Check if a public claim needs review.

Minimum public-safe packet

• A page URL, place, source type, or claim that can be reviewed without exposing a living person.
• A short source description or public citation instead of a private document upload.
• A clear note about what should happen next: source review, claim review, correction, fact check, or private hold.

Examples of safer wording

• Say “the public record uses this label” instead of “this proves identity.”
• Say “this family-held document needs private review” instead of posting the document publicly.
• Say “this oral-history lead points to a place or source trail” instead of treating private memory as public proof.
• Say “this page needs correction or hold” when the source trail is not strong enough for the claim.

When to stop before submitting

Stop before submitting when the material includes living-person details, current addresses, school or medical details, raw genetic files, legal papers, private family conflict, unpublished oral-history recordings, or anything that could pressure a person or community. Use the Contact / Support route to ask for the safest path without publishing the sensitive material itself.

What safe sharing still allows

Safe sharing does not mean withholding every useful clue. It means sharing enough for another reader to understand the source trail while removing details that could expose, identify, contact, or pressure living people.

Consent matters. Get consent before sharing information about relatives or other members.

Safe sharing also protects the project: public pages should not expose personal emails, phone numbers, addresses, raw DNA data, or private records about living people.

Low-depth value guardrail

This page creates value by helping readers decide what not to publish. Many research sites focus only on collecting more material; TheFoundations also teaches restraint. That restraint is part of source quality because private evidence, living-person details, and sensitive identity material can distort public claims when they are posted without context.

A safe public contribution should make the source trail easier to review without making a person easier to identify, contact, pressure, or expose. If a reader cannot separate the public question from the private proof, the item should stay out of public pages until the evidence and consent posture are clearer.

Use this page as the check before Community Notes, Corrections, Fact Check, Visual Evidence, Wiki entries, and place-based guides. The safer route is usually to publish the source type, claim boundary, and review need while withholding the private document itself.