Question of Privacy

Question

What are the drawbacks of posting our DNA on the various sites for privacy purposes?  Once posted, it's out there. With all of the identity theft going on, I am concerned.

Answer 1

Those sites don't publish your DNA for the public.

They don't even publish it for other matching members of their sites.

No one else can download it. You are not giving it away (except for the site owners themselves, and their data scientists, and even then, you are only a number)

What they publish (and usually only for their members, not for the general public), is statistical analysis of how you match to your potential cousins.

Answer 2

No one can use it to get into your bank accounts or credit info.

The ONLY fear that is real is that if you have a criminal in your family your DNA can point to them IF the police already have their DNA that was left at a crime scean.

The other potential fear is that the health insurance companies will get there hands on it and IF you have bad DNA will raise your insurance rates. However since they already have access to your medial file they have better ways of getting your DNA than from a Genealogical  site.

Comments

Medical concerns are valid,especially mtDNA, but I doubt that the info we post or see on the web is of any use.  The problem comes with the testing companies sharing their info with their partners. They all state that they don't sell to third parties, but a business partner is not a third party, and neither is a grantor for non profits.

And there is this as regards the police: https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2015/02/08/privacy-the-police-and-dna/   Excerpt quote:

"So when that cousin asks you, once again, whether his genetic genealogy test can be used by the police, remind him, once again, that the police don’t particularly want it — and they don’t need it.

First, the tests we take for genealogy aren’t all that useful to the police. Our tests tell us how we are like other people — other family members who share common ancestors with us. The CODIS markers focus on parts of the DNA that make us unlike other people and set us apart as individuals.

And, second, if the police want our DNA, they will get it.

Even if we say no."