Archives.com

Archives.com, a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, is a genealogy service that provides access to over 11 billion historical records for family history research. The platform allows users to search through vital records, census data, newspapers, obituaries, and military records to build family trees and uncover information about their ancestors. While primarily focused on historical data, the site also features a search function for living people, which can reveal names, addresses, and phone numbers. The aggregation of such extensive personal data, both historical and current, poses privacy risks; this information could be exploited by bad actors for identity theft, social engineering, or to uncover sensitive family connections for harassment. The detailed family trees and records can make it easier to piece together personal histories that individuals might prefer to keep private. To protect their privacy, individuals should be cautious about the amount of personal information they share on public genealogy platforms and can request to have their own information suppressed from the living person search results on the site.