Technology

Genealogy boom exposes personal data scammers can exploit

Published

3 months ago

March 19, 2026

Genealogy boom exposes personal data scammers can exploit

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Millions of Americans are digging into their roots. Genealogy has quietly become one of the fastest-growing hobbies in North America, with the industry now valued at more than $5 billion. From DNA kits to digital family tree builders, people are discovering relatives, tracing migration stories and reconnecting with their past.

There is something deeply meaningful about learning where you come from. However, there is another side to this trend that many people never consider.

The same information that helps you find your great-grandparents can also help scammers find you. Once personal details appear online, they rarely stay in one place. And that can create unexpected security risks.

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DNA KITS MAY SHARE PERSONAL DATA AFTER DEATH

A woman looks at the contents of a 23andMe DNA testing kit in Oakland, California, on June 8, 2018. Millions of Americans using family tree platforms may be unknowingly sharing sensitive details like maiden names and birthplaces online. (Cayce Clifford/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What family tree sites encourage you to upload

Genealogy platforms feel harmless. In fact, they are designed to feel warm, nostalgic and personal.

To build a detailed family tree, users often upload information such as:

Full legal names, including maiden names
Birth dates
Places of birth
Marriage records
Address history
Names of children, siblings and relatives
Old family photos
Obituaries and memorial information

Each detail may seem harmless on its own. But together, they create something extremely valuable: a fully mapped identity profile. Not just of you, but of your entire family network. And that kind of information is exactly what scammers look for.

Once information is uploaded, it rarely stays private

Many genealogy platforms allow public trees by default. Even when accounts are private, information can still spread in several ways.

For example, data can appear through:

Shared family trees
Public obituaries
Search features
Data scraping tools
Third-party integrations

Over time, this information becomes searchable. It may be indexed by search engines. Bots can scrape it. Data brokers can absorb it into their databases. Once that happens, your family details no longer live only on a genealogy website. They can appear on people search websites, background check platforms and marketing databases. And you may never know it happened.

The 23andMe wake-up call

The recent bankruptcy of the DNA testing company 23andMe served as a reminder for millions of users. When companies change ownership or shut down, your data does not simply disappear. Genetic data raises serious privacy concerns on its own.

However, the broader genealogy ecosystem carries a similar risk. When you upload deeply personal, multi-generational information, you lose control over how long it is stored, who can access it and where it may end up in the future. Even if you trust a company today, you cannot control what happens tomorrow.

23ANDME PROBE LAUNCHED TO PREVENT CUSTOMER DNA DATA FROM BEING SOLD TO CHINA OR OTHER BAD ACTORS

A woman collects a DNA sample in Oakland, California, on June 8, 2018. Personal data uploaded to genealogy sites can spread across data broker networks, making it difficult to control where information appears. (Cayce Clifford/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Why scammers love family tree data

Cybercriminals no longer focus only on credit card numbers. Instead, they want context. They want personal details that help them impersonate you or bypass security checks. Family tree websites provide exactly that. Here are three ways criminals can exploit genealogy data.

1) Answering security questions

Many financial institutions still rely on knowledge-based authentication questions, such as:

Unfortunately, those answers often appear directly in public family trees. With enough background information, scammers may bypass account protections without ever knowing your password.

2) Crafting believable impersonation scams

Now imagine receiving a message like this: “Hi, Aunt Linda, it’s Jake. I’m stuck overseas and need help.”

If a scammer already knows:

Your relatives’ names
Who is related to whom
Where family members live

They can create highly believable emergency scams. These are no longer random “grandparent scams.” They are customized attacks, and genealogy data makes that customization easy.

3) Targeting entire families

When one person’s information becomes exposed, it rarely stops there. A scammer can quickly map your entire family network. They may identify:

Adult children
Elderly parents
Siblings
Multiple addresses

Then they can launch phishing attempts across several family members at once. In other words, one data leak can turn into a family-wide vulnerability.

How genealogy data strengthens data broker profiles

Here is where the situation becomes even more concerning. Data brokers do not just collect phone numbers and addresses. They build detailed relational profiles.

These profiles often include:

Household connections
Extended relatives
Age ranges
Property ownership
Income indicators

When genealogy data gets scraped or resold, it strengthens those profiles. Your listing may suddenly include:

An accurate maiden name
Verified birth year
Confirmed past addresses
Detailed family connections

The richer the profile becomes, the more valuable it is-not only to marketers but also to criminals. “But I set my tree to private.” Privacy settings certainly help. However, they do not solve the entire problem.

Even if your family tree is private:

Relatives may publish overlapping information
Obituaries remain public records
Historical records continue to be digitized
Other users may repost or copy data

Once information spreads across multiple websites, tracking it becomes extremely difficult. In addition, data brokers constantly refresh their databases. Even if you remove your data once, it may quietly reappear months later.

COULD HACKERS STEAL YOUR DNA AND SELL IT?

A technician works on a device that conducts direct-to-consumer genetic testing at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science in Tokyo, Japan, on July 9, 2014. Genealogy websites may help you trace your roots, but experts warn they can also expose personal data that scammers use to target entire families. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

How to enjoy genealogy without exposing yourself

You do not have to give up genealogy. You simply need to approach it the same way you approach social media.

Consider these precautions:

Limit public visibility on family trees
Avoid posting full birthdates
Be cautious with maiden names
Remove exact address histories
Think carefully before sharing details about living relatives

Most importantly, remember that the real risk is not the genealogy site itself. The risk is where that data travels next.

Stop your family history from becoming a scammer’s playbook

Once personal information enters the data broker ecosystem, it can spread far beyond the original platform. That is why proactive privacy protection matters.

Data brokers collect and resell personal information gathered from public records, websites and scraped databases. If genealogy details such as maiden names, birthplaces and family relationships get pulled into those systems, they can quietly appear across people-search sites and background check databases.

Over time, this information can make it easier for scammers to build detailed identity profiles. Those profiles can be used for impersonation scams, phishing attacks or attempts to bypass security questions.

You can take steps by searching your name and relatives online to see what information is publicly visible, submitting removal requests to people-search sites and limiting what you share publicly on genealogy platforms. Taking these precautions can help prevent your family history from becoming a roadmap for scammers.

However, manually tracking down and removing your information across hundreds of sites can be time-consuming and difficult to keep up with.

One of the most effective steps you can take is to use a data removal service to help remove your information from data broker and people-search websites. While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice.

These services do the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. They also continue scanning for new exposures, which helps prevent your data from quietly reappearing later.

It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be one of the most effective ways to erase personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing breach data with details they might find online, making it much harder for them to target you.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Genealogy can be an incredibly rewarding hobby. Discovering where your family came from often creates a deeper sense of connection and identity. But the digital tools that make this research easier can also expose more information than many people realize. A family tree filled with birthplaces, maiden names and relatives may look harmless, yet it can quietly create a roadmap for scammers. The good news is you do not have to stop exploring your ancestry. You simply need to share carefully, protect your data and understand how information travels online.

Have you ever searched for your own name or family members online and been surprised by how much personal information was publicly available? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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Technology

Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scans

Published

3 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scans

Midjourney CEO David Holz just showed off the company’s first hardware product and plans to build a San Francisco spa, which he admitted is a bit different from the “cat pictures” produced by its AI image generator. Dubbed The Midjourney Scanner, it’s an ultrasound-based full-body scanner that uses a ring of sensors to capture vertical slices of the inside of your body, looking at the composition of your muscle, fat, bone, and organs to start. Holz said ideally, you could do this once a year or every single day, as it “aims for image quality comparable to MRI in many ways.”

He mentioned that one way he’d like to use it would be to see how his body changes in response to diet and workout changes, saying, “I’m not the most measured man on Earth yet, you know, but maybe I want to have that daily [measurable information].” A set of job listings advertises the company’s goal as trying to “build and launch the world’s first full-body ultrasound CT scanner, ultimately bringing safe, fast, and high fidelity preventative scanning to billions via a magical spa experience.”

The Midjourney Scanner was developed in a partnership with ultrasound tech company Butterfly Network, which said it uses “40 Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules per system.”

The scanning process starts with stepping onto a platform that drops down into the water on rails through a ring of thousands of transducers that create ultrasonic waves. It then records the ripples passing through your body to analyze them and create detailed 3D images. The scan takes about 60 seconds. Holz said about a dozen people have been scanned so far.

It starts by stepping into a shallow pool of golden light. You then begin to descend into the water. Your body passes through a ring of underwater sensors, each acting like a dolphin, using its echolocation. The sensors send ultrasonic sound waves through your body from every angle. With enough waves, and enough angles, we form an image of what’s happening inside your body.

It combines those sensors with two petaflops of processing power. But after watching the livestreamed reveal, I’m still unclear on what Midjourney’s AI image generation tech exactly has to do with the Midjourney Medical effort, beyond an alternative business for otherwise-unused AI compute.

Holz hopes to put 10 of the scanners into a Midjourney Spa location in San Francisco’s Union Square that will open before the end of 2027 and offered to scan the hands of attendees at its launch event. The Midjourney Spa will have a gym, saunas, and cold plunges to go along with the hot tub–equipped scanning rooms where visitors will get into the water to be scanned.

He did mention that various medical applications would require FDA clearances, but for now, Midjourney Medical says it’s working on “body composition maps” that don’t require the same level of clearance as diagnostic imaging. It also says the “library of scans” users create can be shared with doctors, AI health tools, or others, and that, “We take data privacy seriously — more details on our data policies will come as we get closer to launch.”

Holz suggested that eventually these scans could become better than an MRI, without radiation, powerful magnets, or other complicating factors, to get a look at what’s going on inside people’s bodies “real fast.” In response to a question, he imagined a future where the FDA had a class of devices to look at “weird” things and allowed people to “just try to get as much data as we can.”

Technology

UK to ban TikTok, YouTube, other social media apps for children under 16, Starmer says

Published

4 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

UK to ban TikTok, YouTube, other social media apps for children under 16, Starmer says

UK expected to ban social media for kids under 16

The UK considers banning social media for children under 16 after a three-month consultation, following an Australian-style ban. Licensed clinical social worker Darby Fox discusses the impact on children’s well-being, parental regulation challenges, and the prevalence of AI use among kids aged 9 to 17 in the US.

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U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is taking on some of the world’s largest technology companies, announcing Monday that Britain will ban children under 16 from using major social media platforms — including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube — and impose hefty penalties on companies that fail to keep minors off their services.

The restrictions, expected to take effect early next year, would also apply to Instagram, Facebook and X. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal, as well as YouTube Kids, would be exempt.

Starmer said he is prepared to confront resistance from technology companies and acknowledged some teenagers will try to circumvent the rules, but argued the government has a responsibility to act.

“Every parent can see it with their own eyes. Social media is making children unhappy,” Starmer, who has two teenage children, told reporters. “I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them.”

AFTER AUSTRALIA PASSES SOCIAL MEDIA BAN LAWMAKERS PROBED ON WHY CONGRESS HASN’T DONE MORE TO PROTECT KIDS

A 14-year-old boy looks at a iPhone screen on November 30, 2024 in Bath, England. (Anna Barclay/Getty Images)

The move places Britain at the forefront of a growing international push to limit children’s access to social media. Australia last year became the first country to prohibit children under 16 from holding social media accounts, while Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced or proposed similar age-based restrictions. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are among others studying or developing similar approaches.

Under the British plan, platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent kids under-16 from accessing their services could face multimillion-dollar fines. Starmer said enforcement efforts would be directed at technology companies rather than the children themselves.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a press conference at Downing Street in London to announce government action to protect children online on June 15, 2026. (Carlos Jasso/Pool Photo via AP)

The decision follows a public consultation that drew 116,000 responses from parents, children and the tech industry — the second-highest response total for a government consultation since one on same-sex marriage in 2012.

DAN GAINOR: ENGLAND DOESN’T HAVE FREE SPEECH AND WANTS TO TAKE OURS AWAY, TOO

More than 90% of respondents supported an under-16 ban, according to the government.

A YouTube spokesperson warned Monday that a blanket social media restriction could “push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less-safe services.”

A teen holds a phone displaying nine social media app icons, illustrating common platforms that collect user data. (Anna Barclay/Getty Images)

The U.S. Embassy in London warned that any regulations should be narrowly tailored and not infringe on free speech protections, while also expressing concern about additional burdens on American technology companies.

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Starmer said he expected to discuss the issue with President Donald Trump and other world leaders at the G7 summit in France that starts Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Technology

Tim Cook says RAM expenses are ‘unsustainable’ and Apple is going to raise prices

Published

14 hours ago

June 17, 2026

Press Room

Tim Cook says RAM expenses are ‘unsustainable’ and Apple is going to raise prices

We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.

Cook doesn’t say when Apple plans on raising prices or which products will be affected. The company has already stopped selling the Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM in March and later raised the starting price of the Mac Mini to $799 after dropping the cheaper $599 option from its lineup. Analyst Tim Culpan also suggested that Apple could discontinue the base configuration of the MacBook Neo, while keeping the $699 model with 512GB of storage.

As AI companies continue to demand more memory in their sprawling data centers, suppliers are struggling to keep up. The shortage has led to surging RAM and storage costs, as well as price increases across game consoles, laptops, and other devices.

“There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” Cook tells the WSJ. “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products.”

Apple is getting ready to take the wraps off its latest lineup of iPhones later this year, though it’s unclear how big an impact the memory shortage will have on pricing. The WSJ estimates that the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro could cost $1,299, a jump from the $1,099 iPhone 17 Pro.