To not want my DNA on 23 and me / Ancestry etc?

[fingernails24]

I'm not sure if IABU but just have a bit of a gut feeling / dislike about the prevalence of people submitting their DNA to these "fun" sites to find out their genealogy
I understand if you're adopted or other reason to question your heritage but personally have some privacy concerns about having my DNA stored on some global database for which the privacy is not exactly clear on how it's used or shared.
I'm also a true crime fan and appreciate the strides towards cold case crime solving using these methods but still I just don't want to do this
Feels a bit "handmaids tale" in that it's sold as a fun Xmas gift and behind the scenes there is now a huge global database from which companies can track us (a bit like targeted advertising) and I don't like it
My mother in law told me I was a flat earther and I'd love to have some logical arguments/ reasons / evidence to share with her
Or happy to be told I'm being overly concerned

I don’t want to do it either even though someone bought me a DNA pack one Christmas. Not for the same reasons as you but I know a few people who have found that loved ones have some pretty shocking skeletons i the closet and my dad, who died a few years ago, was by all accounts a bit of a slag in his youth 😂 I wouldn’t want a half sibling coming out the woodworks. I just have a gut feeling about it. And once you’ve done it, that information is out there, there’s no going back. As you say it’s meant to be a fun thing but I think unless you’re REALLY into genealogy it could end in teats

I’m with you on this, privacy around personal, sensitive information is important , plenty of considerable risks for not that much benefit

I think if you're interested in wanting to trace your family tree, DNA is the only way to go.
Yes, you have to be prepared for some possible surprises, (my Dad found out he had another 7 half siblings he knew nothing about!), but, there's no point in tracing your Ancestors if you don't do it, in my opinion, as you could be researching people who aren't really related to you.

To be honest, unless your cousins and aunties and grandchildren etc are all thinking the same way as you, the changes brought about by this science are probably coming for you whether you personally submit to it or not.

Considering the info people put on social media, I don’t really consider the DNA sites to be much of a problem. You can tick the box for your sample to be destroyed after the analysis is done.

Do you mean submitting your DNA sample to find out your heritage as in you could be a % of Irish, mostly American and a fraction Scottish? I'd love that, is that a different thing to the ancestry family tree builder?

Honestly I felt the same. Unfortunately that decision was taken out of my hands by others in my family. Since they've done it, I have used their results for research as I felt the cat was out the bag and I am really into my family history.

I would say that the privacy policies of all the DNA sites are not equal though. Some are more of a concern to me than others. You can transfer your results to other sites to gain additional information. This is something I've asked my family not to do.

Between the three DNA tests my family members have done, we've found a number of 'naughty' family members.

One person who turned out not to be who they thought they were and had a different father than they thought.
One illegitimate woman who took the test in the hope of finding out who her father was. She was born during WWII and sadly died recently before we saw the result. We've been able to tell the daughter some information to help her further.
Then an uncle who had a fling with a woman and it turns out had a daughter no one knew anything about.

We HAD expected something to come up given characters within the family. However the surprise has been that the unexpected results have not been where we were anticipating them!

I don't think you can remotely prepare yourself mentally for the results because even if you expect something unusual, the possibility of other hidden stories is just too unpredictable.

It's been interesting but I can't say I'd recommend others to do it. It's a can of worms to say the least.

That said my family members are who they thought they were and it has helped prove a large amount of research and break a few brick walls which would otherwise been impossible using the surviving records.

For the price it's not worth it just to find out your heritage breakdown. It doesn't really tell you much tbh.

It is worth it if you want to use it to help build a family tree / prove your family tree is accurate.

I did it years ago and now I wish I didn't. I had no idea it would be used in the way it is now, but I should have known I guess. Anyway, nothing I can do about it now

I won't do it. I work for an insurance and pensions company and know there is constant research into dna/genetic predictors for health conditions/mortality rates etc. If at some point in the future certain markers etc are identified as predictors of disease you could be identified and be ruled out as a customer for pensions, insurance potentially mortgages and all sorts of stuff. The use of voluntarily given dna is not properly regulated and could be used against you in the future.

I am relatively selective when it comes to my data even when dealing with a company or organisation that I deem to be benign. There is no guarantee of them continuing to be benign or the data always being safe

As others have said though, you may not have the choice of others in your family have already made the decision.

Effectively I'm screwed as a result. That information is now out there.

It's even worse if you come from a large extended family.

Well that’s scary!

Quite boringly, I am exactly who I thought I was. I am related to people of the ethnic group to which I belong and there are no unfamiliar names repeatedly cropping up. I am not quite sure what anyone is going to do with the information that I am likely to have the blue-green Celtic eye colour. You could probably hazard a guess on dark hair and light skin too. I was relieved to find out that my mother was not a carrier for the cystic fibrosis gene because quite a lot of her siblings died young. I think finding out my grandmother died of tuberculosis in her 40s is something to keep in mind given that about a million people worldwide die from it but that was from old digitised records not 23 and me.

I don't really care nor have any concerns about family skeletons coming out for me it's more about more data mining - having woken up a bit more about Facebook and other social media algorithms and targeted advertising having my DNA stored somewhere just seems a step too far - and yes maybe stupid because I am on Facebook and instagram and always click yes to cookies cos it's quicker so assuming my data is out there all over but dna makes me uncomfortable in a way I can't express
I'm pretty sure no one reads the terms and conditions when doing these things - 23 and me recently got hacked and had a massive data breach - one of the sites is partnered with google etc so reality is your data is being sold
But the idea of a massive global dna database that people have blindly gone into when previously your dna was only taken if you'd committed a crime really scares me. Does that make me a bit tin hat ? Not something i am usually that's for sure

But I agree if my blood relatives have done theirs then if I murder someone I'll be able to be traced ha ha

I think it just annoys me that my in laws have all gifted it to one another and done it for a laugh and haven't really considered who is storing their most personal data or what they're doing with it and they think I am the weirdo for questioning that

Also when reading about it recently I read that the data telling you your genealogy is pretty skewed anyway because the majority of people who have also submitted and therefore the data yours can be compared too are white European so not really that accurate anyway
I may be wrong here I'm not expert but would assume their searches rely on their database solely ? Is that the case ? Otherwise what are they comparing your dna against ?

@paasll "Considering the info people put on social media, I don’t really consider the DNA sites to be much of a problem. You can tick the box for your sample to be destroyed after the analysis is done." You tick the box but how do you know they destroyed it ?

@Pleasegodgotosleep this is precisely the kind of data mining I'm talking about and which I think most people who do it for a bit of fun are totally ignorant about - no one reads the small print on how their data might be used or sold or shared really do they? It's like millions of people are blindly walking into this

I genuinely think people are stupid / naive if they don't think their most personal data is going to be sold so that they can be specifically targeted to sell something too !!
I remember being surprised when I had been searching wedding dresses that suddenly all my Facebook ads were wedding related until my DH explained targeted ads
And that was in 2009 it's way more sophisticated nowadays

There are legal protections but they can be circumvented.

I have a terrible medical history and some things could be genetic. But I have no children so I made the choice.

I was so disappointed, I am so boring, a little bit of Yorkshire, about the same for Ireland and then about 1% random Finnish!

I did find my dad's cousin so we have filled parts of each other's trees out.

But the idea of a massive global dna database that people have blindly gone into when previously your dna was only taken if you'd committed a crime really scares me. Does that make me a bit tin hat ? Not something i am usually that's for sure

Until very recently it was anyone who had a DNA sample taken by the police was added tot he database. So if you were arrested, but innocent or if you gave DNA to be ruled out of an investigation your DNA was kept.

OP there was a really interesting BBC radio documentary about exactly your completely logical worries! It's called The Gift.

I think the police hold about 8million DNA profiles on record now, which was a number that shocked me tbh.

From October when we go to the EU we will have to provide fingerprints.

If I'm honest I think this is the way the world is going and I think too many people don't question it, saying 'well I have nothing to hide and if it helps stop crime I'm in'. Except it's not that simple.

I think your concerns are well grounded.

Ancestrys current t&C's do not allow the use of their DNA for use with law enforcement. They have much more narrowly defined and restricted t&C's than some of the other services. The others are much more unnerving to me.

It's not tin foily to think about.

I am happy to be on DNA database. I understand what you are saying re data being sold but, pragmatically, what are they going to do with it? It's not like someone is going to plant my DNA at the murder scene...
On the other hand, if I go missing and fall a victim of a serial killer I'd love for there to be a DNA base which will allow my ancestors to figure out who I was when my body is found 60 years later. I know it's a weirdly specific example but I recently watched a documentary on Disney+ when someone has been able to trace living relatives of a body which was found in the US in the 60s. It would not have been possible without an international database of exactly the sites you are talking about.
Plus, anything I can do to make police matters quicker to resolve is a win for me.

The insurance type stuff is the big worry.

Certain people may not be able to get life insurance. That has implications for mortgages.

Stuff like that.

Are insurance providers checking DNA databases? First time I hear about it.
Either way, I managed to get a mortgage without needing life insurance so I am not overly concerned about that.