A seemingly innocent website knows who your family members are and where they live.

There’s a lot of information about you in public documents if you’ve ever signed a lease or applied for a loan – your address, your age, sometimes the identity of your family members.

It’s well known that a lot of sites around the internet, such as Spokeo, collect and compile that kind of information into databases.

But one innocuous-seeming website, FamilyTreeNow.com, found itself at the center of controversy earlier this week when some people realized that you could get information like a person’s address, family members, birth month, and phone number – within minutes and without ever creating an account.

Go check it out for yourself. Simply input your name and your state and see what it turns up for you. For me, it found my immediate family members, an old address I used to use, and my current address.

Anna Brittain, a young-adult fiction writer based in Alabama, discovered Family Tree Now, and tweeted out a series of instructions about how to remove your personal information that ended up going viral.

Go check it out for yourself. Simply input your name and your state and see what it turns up for you. For me, it found my immediate family members, an old address I used to use, and my current address.

Anna Brittain, a young-adult fiction writer based in Alabama, discovered Family Tree Now, and tweeted out a series of instructions about how to remove your personal information that ended up going viral.

Here’s how to opt-out:

This is the front page of Family Tree Now. Put in your first and last name and state and see what it turns up.

ok let’s look at what it has on me. It knows what year I was born in, and the names of my brother and my parents, as well as my current address. It’s missing a few of my past addresses but it’s remarkably complete. But it also thinks I go by “Kim Leswing,” which is wrong.

This isn’t good. Yes — someone committed to finding out this information could uncover it, but this was too easy for my comfort. Here’s how to get out. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Privacy.”

That will bring you to a page full of legal looking text.

You’re looking for a small link under “Information We Collect.” It should say “opt out here.” It’s about halfway down the page.

Is it just me, or does Family Tree Now give a lot more warning about opting out than it does when looking someone up?

Beginning the opt-out process will bring you to another, more detailed look-up. Fill out your information again.

You’ll want to press the big red button.

Congrats! Don’t forget to check back in a few hours to make sure you’ve actually been removed.

In my case, it worked pretty quickly — within the hour.

Anna Brittain, who first publicized the website, has more information and recommendations below:

Stay safe.

Thanks,
raymeela89