I feel that it is important for other researchers to know of a situation regarding privacy issues and Capron research I have encountered.

I have recently contacted Phil DeSilva (also a poster here) regarding some research that I provided to him that he has posted on his Capron Cousins site. He never asked if it was ok to post this infomration on his site and there is no credit given to my primary research on his site. I have recently asked him to remove some specific sensitive personal information on my family that was provided and he has refused! This information is not available to the public (except on his site) and puts my living family members at risk for unwanted and unsolicited obnoxious comments as well as gives people additional information that could lead to identity theft (ie: previous addresses, social security number issue dates/places, associations and affiliations and detailed medical issues). This information was NEVER meant to be posted for the world to see and my trust with Mr. DeSilva has been broken.

I have been researching genealogy for many years and have never run into another researcher who refused to delete information upon request, especially given the concrete reasons I have stated. The line that Mr. DeSilva refuses to delete is an off shoot of a Capron line and to my knowledge; my family is the only descendants of this line. In theory this information should not be helpful to other researchers but it is still out there for someone to view.

I would advise others not to share information unless you are ok with it being on the front page of the newspaper for the world to see. It is a sad to see the wonderful benefits of the internet turn into a criminal's playground. I know most researchers are sensitive to privacy and respect each other but a few bad apples can really ruin a good thing.

I just wanted to alert others to the situation and discourage them from sharing information with him as I believe he is unreasonable and insensitive to my privacy request. I sure if the roles were reversed he would be as angry as I am!

If anyone has further suggestions on how to deal with this I am happy to hear them :) I am looking into the details of HIPPA and other privacy laws to see what other recourse I may have.