Class Creator will no longer show street addresses or telephone numbers in Profiles even if the Classmate has allowed those items to be shared with fellow Classmates.

For now on if a Classmate wants the street address or telephone number of a fellow Classmate he or she will need to contact the Classmate and ask for that information. These requests can be made through the Class Creator system of course -- the information will simply no longer be shown on the Profiles page.

The system will continue to collect street address and telephone numbers for all members but only Administrators will be able to see this information for now on.

Privacy laws have become extremely strict. We are taking this measure to ensure we are in compliance with current privacy laws and to protect your members from the potential unintended sharing of sensitive personal information.

Although arguably there are cases where it's convenient to share telephone number and street address with fellow Classmates, most Classmates don't opt for this option anyway. Unfortunately there's no way to know 100% for sure that a new registrant is a real classmate. Cases of hijacking and impersonation and so forth do happen.

If a member needs the street address or telephone number of a fellow member it's really not hard to simply ask. If the classmate wants to then offer up that information they can do so on their own volition.

I know there may be some Administrators here who will not be happy with the removal of this feature. I apologize if that's the case. Please understand for legal reasons and in accordance with our continual commitment to protection of privacy this decision is set in stone and we will not be able to accommodate exceptions.

You've done a great thing here! Thank you.

Thanks for understanding the need for this.

Too bad it comes to this.

Thanks for looking out for us!

This is a good thing. I am already using
verification questions. If a classmate can't answer the questions they don't get to sign up! Thanks for the controls put in place. Glenda Douglas Matt

Thanks, I appreciate the privacy. May I use your e-mail as is to announce this new policy?

I would probably customize it some, but it should be OK to use.

It is regretable, but necessary. We were just "talking" about that yesterday, weren't we? It's better to be safe than sorry. Good job, guys.

Well I got half-way through cut-and-paste of the profile pages for a Memory Book. A day's notice would have been nice!

Good idea! We just found out that someone has taken my husbands SSN, birth date & address to obtain a online Cash loan from a local business. We're trying to think how they got the SSN. javascript:addSmiley('');

Good move, in my opinion. I haven't had any classmates express concern over this, but it's better to be proactive and prevent any potential problems from arising.

Just to be perfectly clear with these words

"-- the information will simply no longer be shown on the Profiles page.
The system will continue to collect street address and telephone numbers for all members but only Administrators will be able to see this information for now on."

I assume that current and new classmates can enter and change their addresses and phone numbers in their own profile pages, and it will remain there without being deleted by the CC system. This information will then be available for the administrators to utilize for downloads, and in bulk mailing for reunions, etc. It simply will not be shown to other classmates, or anyone else for that matter, except administrators.

Or, am I wrong?

Dan,

Yes, that is correct. The information will not show up to other classmates. The admin can use the information to contact the classmates about reunions, etc. but classmates cannot contact other classmates through phone or address unless the other classmate sends them the information.

This is such a sensitive are now. We recently sign back up with Harris Publishing. For those that do not know them they are the folks who actually create databases. The created ours about 15 years ago. They then sell directories with the names and address etc. I was a little concerned about doing this this time. I am sure we will get some complaints but for this this the control is in their own hands. Nothing will be listed without permission. I still worry.

THANK YOU!!!! This was one of those "sticky" issues with others on my committee. I personally felt a little uncomfortable having that info out there. This is a very good thing!

Great idea! I had someone sign up and got the phone number and address to solicit their travel business. A classmate, but she never participates in anything, just wanted the info for herself. Great Idea!

I agree with this and do not see a major problem. If something comes up, I'm all about privacy and personal information being protected for the sake of identity theft if nothing more. I have more than one fellow alum who had his identity stolen before I started the sites.

The worst that can happen is that we deal with a grumble now and then. As time passes, it will all be 'the norm'.
Thanks, Brad.

Now I wonder... does this bring us closer to a request I made to allow Root Admins to limit our admins to particular classes on the multi class sites? Though I want to trust and do give my rule that they cannot give out one address or phone number... it could happen. Without a way to view what admins are doing in the sites, it could happen without a Root's knowledge.

I hesitated posting this because I realize all you (CC) are working on at this time.

Again, thanks for the action you took on addresses and phone numbers.

I applaude this change too Brad.

Question/comment on another topic, but along these same lines.

When a non member finds themselves on a CC homepage - and then clicks on a link that is password protected-----as you know there is an option for the writer to request the system password. more often than not, the writer simply requests a password, without identifying what connection they have with the class. This results in my having to probe a bit before giving out the password. Would love the ability to create my own message/instruction indicating what nfo should be given when requesting the password.

Weighing the pros and cons, I think it's a good move. It cuts the chances of misuse way, way down. As said above, it's a shame it has to be that way.
Barbara

Gwen, no.

Irma: Good idea. Can you tell me what wording you'd like to include there (i.e. this is my way of asking you to do my work for me)

Brad,
I'm not trying to answer for Irma, but my own idea would be something like "what affiliation do you have with us?" or "For security could you explain what &/or why you need...etc.". Perhaps that will strike a note as to wording.
Barbara
P.S. Or maybe even, "I'll post whatever you like. This is a closed group so I'm the one that must do the posting (or give out addresses)". Close??

"Gwen, no. "

Brad,

I strongly agree with the new policy. Nice work.

Suggestion: On the Member Function/Edit Contact Info/Contact Information page, you have the words, "Your street address is visible only to the Site Administrator and is hidden from your Classmates unless you specifically choose to share this information in your Profile area." Would it be wise to add similar wording under the Telephone and Cell Phone entry boxes?

A careful reading of the above words shows that if a classmate wishes to display their address and/or phone number in their profile they may do so. They simply add that information to the Comments section of their profile.

As an admin, I've done this, and also added my private email address, so classmates may contact me regarding photos they wish to email me for the site, memorabilia they wish to snail mail me that I scan and return, or questions they wish to discuss over the phone.

Hi Scot,
What I did for anyone to contact me personally was to raise my membership to 'Platinum" and acquired a site attached e-mail address (i.e. scott@eastlongmeadowhighschool1970.com) which turns over and sends any correspondence to that address to my personal e-mail. I liked it.also, because it allowed me to e-mail restaurants and gift providers with a classier address.
Barbara

Thank you for the suggestion Scott. Check out Edit Contact Info page for new wording. I took out the wording about being able to show this information because we're not allowing it anymore; however, as you pointed out if a Classmate wants to put this information in some other field they can certainly do that. Obviously we cannot recommend it for reasons stated in this thread.

Brad - I didn't see your reply until this am. I haven't yet composed a 'script' - but will draft one here. here goes:

When submitting a request for a system password, please provide your connection to the class

Thanks much for this consideration.

Thanks!

Brad,
I guess I'm in the minority here. I understand your concern, but I'm not sure about this idea. Unless someone has an unlisted phone number, the info you're restricting (address and phone) is readily available on a number of sites on the web. I know because I've used them to find classmates.

Jim

I would have thought the exact same way Jim. In fact I did think the exact same way... The problem is minority concerns, not majority. 99.9% of the time this isn't going to be a problem. But in today's world Privacy Laws protect against the minority problem.

Lots of people put in cell phone numbers here today and those numbers are often not listed. You can't find a street address in 100% of cases searching other sources. So if somebody hijacks an unused classmate name, and that certainly happens, now we're giving up this information.

The problem is what happens when the person who just got somebody's street address and cell phone number is a stalker? And that person now finds the classmate and kills her? This sounds extreme I know. But we've been involved in 2 murder investigations already. And another case so weird I can't even list the topic of it publicly.

So... I completely do understand where you're coming from. But we can't continue giving out private information of this type because a classmate simply isn't always a classmate... Sadly, one bad apple really does spoil an entire barrel.

Was this original message emailed to administrators?

An email was not sent out on this topic, as is the case most of the time based on the fact that our system changes in some way shape or form on a daily basis. When it is thought to be a good idea to give additional information, as we did here, a new topic in the forums is initiated.

Along these lines - should the option to activate the WHERE ARE THEY NOW on the HomePage be removed? I realize we can de-activate it but maybe the option should be removed.

EDIT ADD: I know many people will be disappointed if we remove the WHERE WE LIVE box. Will that be staying?

I understand what you are saying, Barbara F. but... the map is how I found Class Creator and one of the reasons I moved our class here. I'm confident Class Creator is weighing each decision heavily.

If you remove WHERE ARE THEY NOW, the map should go as well. I suggest an OPT IN option at the bottom of the details page with the other options. Just a thought...

(Edited 2 typos!)

Gwen Corey wrote:

I totally agree Gwen. On one of my other sites, people use the map feature a lot. If you click on WHERE ARE THEY NOW currently, you only get a profile page. So it should probably go. But I'd like to see WHERE WE LIVE stay.

What we were most concerned about was street address. If you offer to show your street address to another logged in classmate, but don't understand that a classmate might not always be a classmate (rare but happens enough to warrant this decision), you make a decision not fully understanding what's really possible here. We don't want a stalker to be able to literally drive up to somebody's driveway... Where They Are Now and Where We Live are different. Where They Are Now might ultimately get you to somebody's Profile, but not if that Profile is password protected. And again, even in rare cases of hijacking where a non classmate winds up on a profile page, we've at least taken out the most sensitive personal information (street address and phone number). Where We Live is ok too because a long time ago we plotted everyone to zip code center. We never show the exact location where somebody is at. Finding the city and state where somebody is living is almost always incredibly easy using numerous sources. Much easier than, say, getting ahold of somebody's unlisted telephone number or their cell phone number. As it stands now I think we've drawn a reasonable line.

Sounds good to me Brad. Glad we're keeping those,

Agree completely, Brad.

Hopefully there's a iimit to what we give up. 100% safe is not a realistic goal. There is no such thing.

CC is one of the best web tools I've seen. If you remove too much, it'll force us to go back to building our own; and no one wants to go there.

Hear you. No plans to limit anything else. I think we've reached a sensible balance.

I have just started using ClassCreator, and have started uploading classmate info. I have been checking addresses against the US Postal System, but it looks as though that is a waste of time. I do not find a way of viewing them after a bulk upload. Do I need to upload only state and ZIP to the system for each classmate?

It isn't a waste of time because your website becomes your database. You can download the class list.

When I tried to look at my class list in HTML format, only my own address showed up, which I had entered in my profile. The uploaded ones do not show. Am I missing something?

Tell me a classmate with a street address besides you.

Jerry D Anderson, Gary L Boone, Carlos Duncan, Barry Wainer
Try these. Unfortunately, I deleted my partial .csv files, and resorted my main database. I think these were uploaded.

When I do Manage Classmates, Enter/Edit Classmates for Barry Wainer, he doesn't have a street address. Same for Gary Boone. Same for Jerry Anderson. Same for Carlos Duncan.

So, the address field doesn't seem to have been uploaded when you uploaded your spreadsheet.

I just uploaded another 46 classmates. The state is found, but not the rest of the address fields. Any ideas?

Hi Dale,

I will leave the technical info to CC staff. Want to say... welcome to the Help Forums. We hope you will keep coming back again and again.

When you have your data input into the system, you and only you (or others you add as admins with Manage Classmate access) can view the hidden contact information by going into Manage Classmates without having to download the info each time. This is simply added as a tip... not to replace an answer by CC.

The upload template needs to have the heading exactly the same (same order, same spelling, same upper/lower case spelling). If the heading is different in any way, or in a different order, that is probably the reason the street address isn't uploading. Just a guess because I haven't seen your file

If you figure it out, you can use the Manage Classmates, Upload Classmates, RESET CLASSMATES and then select the classmates you want to re upload those classmates instead of adding the address manually.

Problem solved! My headings were not correct. All data is now showing. Sorry, it was my mistake.

Glad you figured it out

Can an admin still make the address and phone number entry mandatory ?

On the PREFERENCES page, look for these options

COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Do not require any Address fields
Require that if any Address field is entered, all must be entered
Require all Address fields be entered
Require a Telephone or Cell Phone

Thank you Kyle.
I kept looking under the Profile Generator.

Per your Response #53 -
I was doing some changing in my Preferences page and took off listing the phone number on the profile as Mandatory. When I went back to put it back on as Mandatory, the listing for the mandatory phone number has disappeared. What happened to it? I need to make sure we have access to phone numbers please.

Was that changed when the Social profile was released? Especially in the case of new members, I'm much more concerned with getting a phone number to verify than for forced entry of all address fields. Can the original choices be restored?

Ann you're all set.

Thanks so very much! Whew! Need those phone numbers from new ones that sign in. Hard to get otherwise!

Brad, was that "you're all set" for Classic sites only? I don't see any change here...