Hi Travis, we've certainly given a lot of thought to this issue. First, yes you can start a family tree that doesn't include yourself. Go to http://www.appletree.com/person/add. After adding the first person you can click the "Visually Edit Relationships" button and add family a little easier.
So regarding identity theft, clearly this is a major concern for us. Most people don't realize it, but obtaining someone's birthday or mother's maiden is very simple. Typically obtaining vital records (birth, marriage and death records) is fairly easy. And that's a good thing because it allows us to learn more about our family history, discover relatives and find how we're related to others. What's bad is organizations relying on something so easily determined like a mother's maiden name for identity verification. Organizations are becoming less and less likely to rely on this kind of information and the reality is identity theft through access to vital records is extraordinarily rare.
And the benefits to exposing this information are extraordinary. You're not only enabling yourself to see how you fit into the global family tree, but you're also enabling others.
The choice is yours how much information you want to expose about yourself and your family.
