FamilySearch Tree

Is FamilySearch safe?

Mostly, as long as you understand the deal. FamilySearch Tree is free, sells no DNA tests and shows no ads, and the living relatives you add are hidden from other users at first. We score it 63/100, level with MyHeritage (63) and below Ancestry (69).

What holds it back is a 2022 breach of account data, two-step login you have to switch on, and policies built for an archive: FamilySearch keeps data for 110 years and keeps a permanent licence over what you add to its shared tree.

Who runs FamilySearch and what it collects

FamilySearch International is a Utah nonprofit "affiliated with and supported by" the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its privacy notice, updated on 24 March 2026, says opening an account does not make you a member or signal support for the Church.

Apple's App Store label has no "Data Used to Track You" section. The list of data linked to you is still long for a family tree app: precise location, physical address, email, name, phone number, photos, videos, audio, customer support messages, user ID and "sensitive info", mostly for app functionality, with product interaction used for analytics. On Android, Google Play says photos, files and voice recordings are shared with others to make the app work, which fits a public archive of family memories, and lists your email address for marketing.

The privacy notice adds three points worth knowing:

• Church entities may receive analytics and activity data "to develop and improve our services", anonymised "wherever possible". Church members who link their accounts send membership data the other way.
• Processors handle tasks including measurement and "data-driven social media messaging".
• FamilySearch may share data to assist government law enforcement agencies, and may store it in the United States.

There is no DNA product, so FamilySearch holds no genetic data. That alone puts it ahead of 23andMe on the most sensitive kind of data.

Living relatives and the shared tree

FamilySearch runs one shared tree of deceased people that any user can view and edit. Living people are handled differently. When you add a living relative, the notice says the record is visible only to you at first, and in some cases to a small invited group.

The terms go further than most rivals on reuse. You give FamilySearch a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide licence to everything you contribute, and the terms say it may use that content, "including any personal information of living individuals", to work with other organisations, "including commercial genealogical organizations". The notice asks users not to add sensitive data, such as religion, health or immigration status, about other living people. Follow that rule.

Church members can also submit names from their own family line for vicarious religious ordinances. The terms forbid submitting unrelated people such as celebrities.

The 2022 breach and account security

On 23 March 2022 the Church detected unauthorised access to systems that held account data. According to its statement, the data may have included usernames, membership record numbers, full names, gender, email addresses, birthdates, mailing addresses, phone numbers and preferred language, but not donation or banking data. FamilySearch emailed affected users on 13 October 2022, after US law enforcement lifted a request to keep the incident confidential, and said family tree data was not affected. The Church has not published how many people were affected.

That breach falls within our 10-year window and weighs on security. Two-step login is available in account settings once you have a verified recovery email, but it is off by default. We found no public bug bounty; a HackerOne directory entry for FamilySearch lists only a privacy officer's email and no rewards.

Children and strangers

The App Store rates FamilySearch Tree 4+, while listing messaging and user-generated content. The terms set no minimum age. In practice the risk to children is low, since the app is about records rather than feeds, but strangers who share an ancestor can message each other, and the shared tree has errors and edit disputes. For a child, set up the account with them and keep living relatives private.

How to use FamilySearch more safely

1. Turn on two-step login in your account settings on the website (Settings, then Account) after verifying your recovery email.
2. Keep living relatives private, and leave out health, religion or immigration details about them.
3. Think before uploading photos and audio of living people, since the app shares photos and recordings with other users to work.
4. If you leave, ask for erasure of your personal data; otherwise FamilySearch keeps it for 110 years.
5. Treat unexpected messages from "distant cousins" with the same caution as any other contact from a stranger.

How we scored it

The regulatory record (87) is FamilySearch's strongest factor, with no fine or order on file. Scams and harmful content (70) and privacy (62) sit in the middle: no ads and no DNA, but a long list of linked data and sharing with Church entities. Security (55) is the weakest, after the 2022 breach and with two-step login left optional, and transparency and control (60) is held back by 110-year retention and a permanent licence over contributions.