I've had my identity stolen once, and fortunately got off pretty easy -- but it has made me more vigilant when it comes to protecting it. There's a website you need to know about, remove your information from -- and share with your friends and family to help keep them safe too.

The site is called Family Tree Now, and they claim the largest collection of genealogy records anywhere, and they’re all 100% free to search. Now here’s the problem, apparently they have all your information, and it’s all there for anyone to view.

Now there are a gazillion 'Pete Hansons' in this earth, and it took me about thirty seconds to drill down to my exact record -- which shows my address, past addresses, relatives, birth date, and on and on. All right there for the whole world to access.

I checked out my name and found a full page of my info, my family’s info, and many people I’ve know through the years, including where I live, and where I have lived in the past. Plus, the names of my wife and kids — scary indeed!

All of your personal info is there probably for the world to see too. So check out this site and do yourself and your family a big favor, and opt out now. Unfortunately, it may take up to 48 hours for your info to be deleted off the site.

Here’s what you need to do to opt out:

Visit familytreenow.com/optout and follow the four steps, then click through to begin the opt out process. I am now opted-out!

After getting yourself safe, make sure you share this page with everyone you know and care about.

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