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Privacy and the Online Directory

People are increasingly sensitive about their personal information being shared online. Use this reference to answer questions about privacy and the online directory.

What is the Online Directory?

Instead of a traditional, printed directory, the directory is in Realm. Being in the online directory means that your online community can see your profile listed when they click Directory in the main menu.

What's visible there?

If you're in the online directory:

  • Your name and photo are visible to anyone with a Realm login.
  • Your contact and personal information, unless you've updated your privacy settings to hide from view, are visible.
  • Registered users in your church community will be able to see groups you belong to, if they're marked public. Group leaders and authorized users determine if groups are public, hidden, or only visible to certain users with permissions.

Who is/is not in the online directory?

Most congregants with a profile (record) in Realm can be added to the online directory. The following, however, cannot:
  • Registered users (aka users with a login), because they are automatically added to the directory.
  • Anyone with the family position of "Child" who does not have a birthday in their profile. (Their privacy settings cannot be opened even by their parents.)
  • Businesses.
  • Inactive profiles.
  • Profiles of those who have been marked "deceased".

Changing Privacy

Who can change a congregant's privacy or add them to the online directory?

  • Administrators.
  • Anyone with the Edit Individual permission.
  • Family members with a "Primary" family position—head, spouse, or similar status—can change privacy settings for other members of their family; those with the family position of "Child" cannot change their own privacy; those with the family position of "Other" can.
  • Registered users can change their privacy settings. (This does not apply to those with a family position of "Child").

Notifications

For the most part, whenever a person's privacy is changed, Realm automatically sends an email to inform them of the update. This happens regardless of who made the change: the profile owner, a family member, or a user with permission. In the case where a child's privacy is updated, the email is sent to the primary members (typically parents) in the child's family.

Emails are sent whether the privacy change is made from an individual profile or, in mass, using custom queries.

If, however, the person does not have a login AND has not been opted in to the directory, no email will be sent. This is to minimize questions from individuals not active in Realm who may be confused by the purpose of the email.