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My Heritage "smart matches" - already my own data!

Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth

September 22, 2017 21:09

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Can someone please tell me how I can contact this person without having to pay for a MyHeritage subscription,,,,,,,,,,,

"...MyHeritage Family Trees
Nina in DAVIES Web Site, managed by KENNETH DAVIES (Contact)..."

This above continues to be attached to "smart matches" relating to profiles of one section of my family tree that I've input so far at Geni. But they are actually exact duplications of my own entries - I can tell this by the way they are presented in my way of doing things, also images reproduced that I created myself to use as profile "avatars". I am happy to share my data of course, and would be glad to have contact with others who share my ancestors. But after two or three weeks of this repeatedly happening, I'm now feeling a bit miffed that I am repeatedly being asked to pay a subscription before I can contact a person who has actually duplicated my own data on another site, not geni, without any contact with me.

How can this happen? Is it acceptable?
When I click on the "contact" link in the "smart-match" details - I'm only given the option to pay the subscription.

PS - I wrote separately to MyHeritage about week ago about this problem and so far have had no help or explanations from them.

10 comments

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  Harold Lumicao Liban September 23, 2017 00:31

  That happens to me also.  Like you say duplicates of my entries.  Why should I pay MyHeritage for the same information.  I just read the info provided by the other person making the entry on MyHeritage.  Sometimes whoever provided info I don't have on my smart match.  I'll just update the person's profile, then  disregard and delete. I don't pay!!

  Harold Liban

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  Harold Lumicao Liban September 23, 2017 00:33

  That happens to me also.  Like you say duplicates of my entries.  Why should I pay MyHeritage for the same information.  I just read the info provided by the other person making the entry on MyHeritage.  Sometimes whoever provided info I don't have on my smart match.  I'll just update the person's profile, then  disregard and delete. I don't pay!!

  Harold Liban

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  Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth September 23, 2017 13:07

  Thanks very much for your reply Harold,
  Yes I can see the logic in what you've said, & I definitely wouldn't pay either. But there's something doesn't feel quite right about it when .......

  Anyone can just take for themselves / copy the fruits of your hard work research about your great-great grannies, etc, and your images, without even first making any contact with you to ask for your consent. Then your own research data is offered back to you via a "MyHeritage smart-match" along with contact links to the family tree it's supposed to have come from. But then you cannot access those family tree and contact links unless you first pay an annual fee. Definitely something not quite ethical about all this, in my view.

  I've now made my geni tree & all of my ancestors' profiles private (400 plus), until I decide where to go with it all from here. But for what it's worth, just needed to make a point of mentioning it here. Thanks again Harold.

  Cas

  Edited by Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth September 23, 2017 13:12
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  Ronald James Friesen October 18, 2017 18:45

  One reason that you are seeing smart matches from MyHeritage is that Geni has been bought by MyHeritage.

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  Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth October 20, 2017 09:28

  Hello Ronald,

  yes I realise that. But the annoying fact is that some of the smart-matches being offered to me are actually my own data anyway, that someone else has copied from my geni tree profiles word for word and re-published it on My Heritage, without contacting me first. It's also frustrating and unacceptable, that I am not able to contact the person who has done it. I am very happy to share my data with people who think we are related but only if they contact me first. 

  Disappointingly, there still doesn't appear to have been any official Geni support staff able to respond to this query, hence I'm now keeping my Geni pages private.

  Edited by Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth October 20, 2017 09:34
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  Ronald James Friesen October 20, 2017 21:22

  My guess is that MyHeritage has copied your Geni tree to MyHeritage and now offering smartmatches to you. That is why you are not able to contact that person because it was done by MyHeritage itself and they probably will not tell you that.

   

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  Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth October 29, 2017 13:24

  Thanks again for your comments Ronald.

  Contacted MyHeritage about it weeks ago, got an acknowledgement saying they would get back to me about it soon, but nothing more, so I've sent 2 more since then, and still nothing. What a fiasco.

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  Jeff, Geni Curator October 29, 2017 14:22

  No, Ronald is incorrect.  MyHeritage does not copy data from Geni, nor does Geni automatically copy data from MyHeritage.

  If you're seeing data on MyHeritage that matches your data it's because another family member (or perhaps an old account you created on MH) added that data to MyHeritage.  MyHeritage also has Smart Matches which can match on Geni profiles or maybe it's public allowing the user to copy your data.

  In many cases like this, I tend to invite the person to Geni to avoid such duplication and collaborate.  Get them to join your tree.

  You may just need a MyHeritage account to contact the person.  Try to find them outside of using Smart Match, which does require a subscription.  If you can find their tree directly through MyHeritage, without using matching or search technology, you might be able to send them a message.

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  Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth October 29, 2017 17:28

  Thanks for your comments Jeff.

  I would want to collaborate with this person, but.......

  "...MyHeritage Family Trees
  Nina in DAVIES Web Site, managed by KENNETH DAVIES (Contact)..."

  the above is hyperlinked in the matches but when I click on I cannot get access through the contact link, unless I pay a subscription to MH which I don't want to do when the data being offered is definitely a copy of mine from my own research. I did join to get a free MyHeritage membership and have spent a lot of time searching for that Davies Website - but absolutely cannot find it. I have never input my family tree at My Heritage. I don't know what else I can do about it then, but it does seem wrong.

   

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  Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth November 30, 2017 13:05

  (LATER EDIT 30-11-2017 - My reply here below was in response to a comment from someone called Lynn, whose message now seems to have been removed)

  Thanks for taking the time to add your comment Lynn. Glad to know someone found this helpful even if only to be made aware of what can happen. Still no proper solution offered by anyone though, so I've given up on Geni, my tree here now to remain private.

  Edited by Carole Anne (Smith) Ashworth November 30, 2017 19:02