Visibility settings in ward directory for membership records

One or two families in our ward have significantly restricted their visibility settings such that only the Bishopric can see the family in the ward directory. Is this an intentional, permanent feature in MLS? The reason I ask is that it seems odd that a family can hide the fact that there is even a family by that name in the ward. I can see making all contact information and even the names of the children invisible, but why make it appear that the family has completely disappeared from the records of the ward? Perhaps there are special cases such as where a battered spouse is hiding from her husband, but such special cases could be dealt with by giving the Bishopric permission to make the family completely invisible in the directory. To let any family do that for themselves seems to go too far. I get lots of questions on this issue for the families in our ward. I would suggest that the most a family can do is only allow their last name to be visible, with something to indicate that all contact information has been made private.

soneill2 wrote:One or two families in our ward have significantly restricted their visibility settings such that only the Bishopric can see the family in the ward directory. Is this an intentional, permanent feature in MLS? The reason I ask is that it seems odd that a family can hide the fact that there is even a family by that name in the ward. I can see making all contact information and even the names of the children invisible, but why make it appear that the family has completely disappeared from the records of the ward? Perhaps there are special cases such as where a battered spouse is hiding from her husband, but such special cases could be dealt with by giving the Bishopric permission to make the family completely invisible in the directory. To let any family do that for themselves seems to go too far. I get lots of questions on this issue for the families in our ward. I would suggest that the most a family can do is only allow their last name to be visible, with something to indicate that all contact information has been made private.

You can submit feedback for the directory by using the feedback link at the bottom of the main lds.org home page. But note that privacy laws in many countries are very strict and the church has to be very careful about how these things are handled. I'm pretty sure that they spent considerable time analyzing the applicable laws to make a decision about what capabilities would be included in the directory. I really doubt that this will change. Be glad that in your area people show up in the directory unless they remove themselves. In EU countries, nobody shows up unless they go in and change their settings to make themselves visible.

Good point on having to deal with EU privacy laws. Perhaps the church decided it didn't want to deal with the hassle of creating different rules in the system based on the location of the ward.

soneill2 wrote:One or two families in our ward have significantly restricted their visibility settings such that only the Bishopric can see the family in the ward directory. Is this an intentional, permanent feature in MLS? The reason I ask is that it seems odd that a family can hide the fact that there is even a family by that name in the ward. I can see making all contact information and even the names of the children invisible, but why make it appear that the family has completely disappeared from the records of the ward? Perhaps there are special cases such as where a battered spouse is hiding from her husband, but such special cases could be dealt with by giving the Bishopric permission to make the family completely invisible in the directory. To let any family do that for themselves seems to go too far. I get lots of questions on this issue for the families in our ward. I would suggest that the most a family can do is only allow their last name to be visible, with something to indicate that all contact information has been made private.

For what it's worth, visibility in the Directory is not a function of MLS, the function is only available in the Directory.

soneill2 wrote:One or two families in our ward have significantly restricted their visibility settings such that only the Bishopric can see the family in the ward directory. Is this an intentional, permanent feature in MLS?

It is an intentional and likely permanent feature of the directory. Leaders have access to LCR and that will list all members they have stewardship over.