There's more than one way to invade your privacy...

With all the hub-bub about the NSA/FISA wiretapping scandal, I thought I'd post this little tidbit about a website that came up in some ethnographic research the Institute has been doing. MyFamily.com is a portal that lets families easily message, have a common email domain, and share media. The pitch - "With so many families living at a distance from one another, MyFamily.com is a great way to connect and strengthen family bonds." The site claims to be "perfect for the family historian". According to some scattered reports on the web, it's pulling in over $100 million annually.

What's interesting about it though, is that it's owned by LDS Media which is a Salt Lake City-based startup that pretty much looks like it was kick-started by a couple of angel investors close to the Church of Latter Day Saints. (that's Mormons to the rest of us).

As many of you may know, when you are baptized into the Mormon Church, its retroactive for all of your ancestors too. That's why the Mormon church is so keen on genealogy.

MyFamily.com's privacy policy seems pretty decent but I bet a lot of their customers have no idea of this ulterior motive.

Comments

[James]

I believe that site was created by a guy named Paul Allen (not the MSFT guy).

http://www.infobaseventures.com/blog/index.php?s=MyFamily

Perhaps you could ask him about this.

[MWarbinek]

Where did you get the idea that when a person is baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that it becomes retroactive for his family and relatives?

This is foolishness, and untrue.

Baptism for the living, must be done by their individual consent, and in person. There is no baptism by proxy for the living, only for the dead. IT is against God's doctrine of free will and choice to "retro" baptize anyone.

Somewhere along the way, you were fed very poor information. If you wish to find out more, go to www.lds.org.

For the dead, that person must have died over 100 years ago for a person to baptize them by proxy into the Lord's Church. Else permission from the family must be obtained.

In some cases, if a person dead over 100 years and his or her family who are not members find out, they can request the removal of that person from the records.

Now baptism for the dead is done to give the dead who are in spirit the opportunity to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and gain baptism that can only occur here in mortality. Even in spirit, they have the freedom to choose to accept the baptism or reject it.

God does not interfere with free will and choice. After all that is why this world is so turned upside down and why people claim God is not helping.

Next time, make proper inquires, not uniformed claims.

MWarbinek

[Anthony Townsend]

Thanks for the correction: the Church of LDS can only retro-actively baptize dead people if they have been dead over 100 years.

But since they're dead they really don't have much say in the matter do they?

[A Correction is needed]

Your article is riddled with errors. First, MyFamily.com is owned by a consortium of many investors. LDS Media is but one of the many owners. It is a minority owner, as are all the others. There is no majority owner.

Next, the $100 million figure is for ALL the businesses owned by MyFamily, inc., not for that one web site. MyFamily, Inc. is the parent company with quite a few divisions. In fact, the MyFamily.com web site is not their biggest or most profitable web site. Like many others, you have confused the web site MyFamily.com with the parent company's name: MyFamily, Inc. (Ancestry.com is owned by the same company and is far more successful.)

Next, your comment of "LDS Media which is a Salt Lake City-based startup that pretty much looks like it was kick-started by a couple of angel investors close to the Church of Latter Day Saints" is rather humorous. The company is based in Salt Lake City so we can assume that the "angel investors" are probably members of the Mormon Church. However, would you also write that any investment firm based in Rome was "a Rome-based startup that pretty much looks like it was kick-started by a couple of angel investors close to the Catholic Church"???

Geographic proximity does not automatically mean that they are "close to" in other senses.

Finally, I see that someone else corrected your off-base comments about the Mormons baptizing ancestors.

By the way, I am not a Mormon and I strongly disagree with many of the Mormon teachings. I simply hate to see inaccuracies wherever they are published.

[VC Investor]

Our fund is invested in myfamily and I can say definitively you are a complete idiot. Is this blog's quality commensurate with the research done by your "Institute"? If so, how in the world are you in business? If there are awards for least informed, dumbest or worst researcher, you would win.

[Anthony Townsend]

I would take these comments seriously if they weren't signed anonymously. As it stands, I'm going to assume that they're all from the Church of LDS's thought police.

[Anonymous LDS Guy]

Now all that... was funny! Very very funny. I am always amazed at how funny we humans can be. Some people are so serious and others so misinformed, yet everybody so adamant. Amazingly funny people. Incredible that we manage to survive as a race.

[beedlenut]

HELLLLLOOOOO... many people in my family were NOT dead 100 years when my LDS sister decided to have everyone baptized by proxy. Correct, they baptize by proxy, using children who have no idea what it is they are doing for the dead, not just randomly selecting whole families. These baptisms are always on behalf of individuals. I came onto this site to check out my hunch that I was handing over my money to the mormon church or some sort of affiliate. I was right. NO THANK YOU. By the way, I am a mormon and how do you even know what is accurate in the LDS church??? IT CHANGES CONSTANTLY... or they lie for "heavenly father" because his law supercedes anyone else's law, like the ones everyone else has to abide by. THEY STILL BELIEVE IN POLYGAMY. It is the only way a woman can get to the celestial kingdom - even if you are the mormon mother theresa. No husband, no temple marriage, no heaven for you, girl.

[Chase O'Gwin]

Ok guys. I work for my family.com which is actually called Generation’s Network now because we do so much more then just genealogical research. The question if there is LDS backing to the company, was nicely answered in another post, by "correction is needed" The company is international now and like was said before LDS church plays but a small part, They contract us to scan their microfilm and documents, but we also scan and digitize things like zoning records for cities, and year books for high schools.
As for why they do genealogy stuff, open your eyes people it is the number 2 most searched thing on the web, number one being porn. Is it any wonder some one decided to make money off of it, its good nitch marketing.
Finally about your doctrinal comments of the LDS church there are some errors, First it is not 100 years it is only one year after the person has passed away the they may be baptized by proxy. Second it is not a bunch of little kids doing it mindlessly it as they have to be at least 12 years old to participate and have show a full understanding of why they are doing it.
As far as the polygamy question goes, there some rather erroneous statements there as well. It is true that a woman must be married to enter the Celestial kingdom, and with out marriage she can not enter, but the same is true of a man, if he is not married he isn't getting in either.
We need only look at the bible at examples of the great patriarchs being commanded to take more than one wife, Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon( the latter two before they fell) These men are considered by all Christendom to be prophets of God. But we see that God does change the "marching orders" according to the circumstance, where many prophets had only one wife and in the case of Jeremiah he was commanded not to marry at all.
There are no members of the LDS church who practice polygamy. Was it practiced in the past? Yes it was, but it was not as willy-nilly as the modern day extremists (which are not members of the LDS church) practice it today. The "marching orders" have changed and God is always been like that. That is why at one time He says thou shall not kill, and at a later time orders Saul to destroy every living thing of the Moabite nation. That is why the concept of revelation is important, so God can help his childeren in the circumstances they find themselves in.
Lastly I would say you guys need to check your sources, I would ask you if you lived 2000 years ago and you see a beaten and tattered man carrying a wooden beam on his back, who would you rather ask what is going on, John the Beloved or Judas Iscariot. In my opinion you have done the latter
If you have any questions feel free to email me at squall_lionheart18@hotmail.com

LDS are not Catholic!! Please get THAT right!