I do need to add, your genetic markers for specific diseases are not public on ANY of these sites. GEDmatch takes the file obtained from your testing company, and literally does exactly what the testing company did- hand you a list of DNA matches, add some tools to work with, and then you still have to figure out how you and a match are related! It is time consuming beyond all reason, even for the most professional, qualified, and educated people. THIS is what law enforcement is using to locate a perp, they are doing the EXACT SAME WORK IN EVERY WAY SHAPE AND FORM as you are using it, for exactly the same end- to find the shared ancestor, to figure out exactly who a match is, and how they are related. Law enforcement samples are submitted to GEDmatch and they get the same tools to pinpoint a suspect that everyone else does. What does an adoptee need to do to find parents? Exactly the same thing cops need to do to find a criminal with DNA. They don’t care about hacking into your email account, or even shaming your family, they are trying to locate one human out of billions using a list of matches and chromosome comparing tools, praying that you have a freaking family tree to eliminate too much guess-work. They aren’t coming to your house, grilling you about some distant 4th cousin in Maine, when you live in California. Worst thing might be them sending an email template, and not saying why they are really contacting you. It’s not worrisome or privacy invading in any way, shape, or form. Unless, of course, you did something that is frowned upon and YOU are who all the months of comparisons and triangulation leads them to, and you chose to use your credit card and pin # as your fake name in your profile so that once they find you, not only do you now have to submit another sample to be 100% positive, but they can use your fake name to treat themselves to a steak and lobster dinner afterwards for a job well done.
At least with dna tests, they tell you that you have genetic markers that MANY OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE THIS DISEASE ALSO SHARE, it does not say that you have a disease, and cannot be used as a diagnosis. The diagnosis comes from a doctor, who turns right around and informs the insurance company, who then can turn right around and NOT PAY FOR TREATMENTS, if they so please. There are legal loopholes threaded tighter than a native basket made of straw set in place for the ease of getting out of anything they want. My favorite is medical insurance through work! Ha! That’s all good and all, but what if you are so sick you can’t work, and lose your job? Ooopsies! Happened to my mother who worked at the HOSPITAL!!! She got cancer, not related to work, couldn’t work, lost her job, and now, because her illness was non-workrelated, and since she no longer was employed for the company, she no longer had medical insurance to cover CANCER AND DOCTORS, SURGERIES, OR MEDICATION! Being without employment doesn’t help to pay those bills or keep stress levels down during times when you are about to die either. So, really, best to skirt the system, take a dna test to find out if traditional research was right, or that you were actually adopted and made it most of your life without learning the secret, help out some other people who want ancestors solved or cops who want crimes solved, and collect all future copays for your physical issues all totaled up, and pay for a trip to South America. There you can pay for treatment outright, from good, just as qualified doctors, at reasonable rates, without worrying if a good doctor is even on the list of “accepted providers” in your area that your insurance company works with, or if the medication prescribed to you is even covered. If it’s expensive, and there’s no generic, I garuntee you are paying extra out of pocket. Only the worst for our valued clients!
I realized after I said it, that Ancestry already only advertises for ethnicity reports anyway, so if the whole family matching feature from their site gets removed someday, nothing will change marketing-wise, and probably cost-wise too. You get shady, questionable, ethnicity reports for the same cost as usual, while the statistical data still gets sold to whoever is willing to pay for it, and life goes on like always. Good business moves for ancestry, prophecizing a possible legal demise in the future with family matching, and so leaving that out of all marketing gimmicks, and realizing that the information collected from the DNA of millions of people mostly in the US could have a wealth of info that would be most beneficial to the wealthiest companies in the world, and selling it to them, thus making ancestry bigger and richer than any other genealogy website on earth. Smart business, stupid Americans. Unless you don’t care, and know what you are being fed from the biggest feces stirers and fear mongers of the nation (media and “news” reporters) in an attempt to cause collective distrust and fear, and be able to adjust that fear into disgust towards anyone who tries to convince otherwise of the dangers of spitting in a cup vs. spitting in the trash. Then, youze is a smaht Merkan!
