Should DNA tests be public when profile is private?

Question

I noticed some names being listed under DNA Connections whose privacy settings were set to private. According to the help, you require Private with Public Tree for these profiles to appear. 

"Exactly like Private profiles except that the person's Family Tree is public. Since they're connected, this also means the Gender and DNA test connections are public.

to test this, I changed the privacy setting for my son to private and then viewed his grandfather.  I can't see his DNA test on his public profile, but I can see his test on his grandfathers.

Son: http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Sargent-1195&public=1

Grandfather: http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Norman-1543&public=1

Answer 1

It may be because it can take up to 24 hours for DNA relationships to get updated.

Comments

I don't think this is the answer.  If you take a look at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Arsenault-68 on your tree, there are profiles listed under the DNA Connections that link to private profiles.I presume the privacy settings for these were set over 24 hours ago.

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Oh yeah, you're right, so it's not the 24 hour wait.

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The DNA connections update once a day, so changing the privacy settings won't immediately have an effect.

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Chris - I still question this being the reason.  If I understand Roland's response, it has been more than 24 hours and I can see that someone in the DNA list I referenced above have their privacy settings set to Private.

It is my understanding that the two things that change by using "Private with Public Family Tree" is that the tree is public, which now people can see Gender and DNA, but without this, they can not.

If I look at the descendency chart, I can see the gender for private profiles that are not "Private with Public Trees". http://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Arsenault-68/890

Also, I changed the privacy setting for my son's sister to private. The change was immediate, but I can still determine her gender. I believe these two problems are connected.  http://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Norman-1543/890

Base on what I believe the documentation states, I shouldn't be able to determine gender or see they have taken a DNA test, if I set a profile to "Private".

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Hi Ken,

 

Sorry, I was forgetting our rule on this. The starting person for autosomal DNA connections does not have to have a public tree. The connections will be made if the test is entered. If you don't want the test to be indicated on profiles, it should be deleted.

 

We require the tree to be public for Y and mt tests because the relationships are clear in those cases. With autosomal connections it's vague how people are related so it's less of a privacy issue.

 

Does it say otherwise somewhere? We may need to correct the explanation somewhere.

 

On Roland's ancestors descendants, you can see their gender but you can't see who they are, right?

 

Regarding http://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Norman-1543/890 -- that page is private.

 

What other instructions are causing confusion?

 

Chris

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Hi Chris,

IMO, references to DNA should be consistent whenever possible.  I believe that Roland, like myself, believed that the names would only be available to those on the trusted list.  

Generally speaking, Wikitree defines certain items to be private at certain levels, and public at others. These items are protected by Wikitree when directly viewed from the object profile page, but these items can be easily determined indirectly.

 I am not sure why Gender is something to be protected, so I am not sure why it is hidden on a private profile page but is displayed on those profiles that display a reference to that Private profile. IMO, I would either not treat gender as private everywhere or not show the gender when referencing it from external pages, being consistent.

I disagree with "We require the tree to be public for Y and mt tests because the relationships are clear in those cases. With autosomal connections it's vague how people are related so it's less of a privacy issue.".

I believe the exact opposite is true.

Hypothetically, If Wikitree  treats the mtDNA and yDNA the same as auDNA(without limiting the profiles to 5 steps), and I add my sons mtDNA or yDNA, his name and a link to his profile will be on 100's of profiles, but there is no way to determine who he is relative to me. But since I know that Wikitree will only show his name up to 5 steps, anyone can easily determine exactly where he is in relationship to me, his name, and his gender.

Thank you,

Ken

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Hi Ken. There are a number of misunderstandings here. I'm afraid I don't have time right now to explain them, but I think it's important that you delete any tests for people whose test connections you don't want public.

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For the record, I'm actually OK with having some info from the private profiles I manage become available to potential matches outside the trusted list due to having added the DNA tests.

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There are a couple of DNA testers that I will have to temporarily remove, but the main subject of the original post was to point out something that happened, that I did not expect. When I read "DNA Connections", being new to wikWikitree, I thought this included auDNA.

I personally will make my own family's auDNA tests public, but unfortunately I manage other kits, like so many people do on 23andme.  Because I can keep their names anonymous, and reveal them to matches only, I just feel more comfortable with doing the same thing here.

Originally, my profile was private with public biography(Why I set this initially, I am not sure), so I noticed when my yDNA tests did not propagate. When I added my auDNA for the accounts I managed, I thought the same logic would keep them private.

This issue then is a documentation issue.