Unauthorised access to kits not in projects

[ikennedy]

A kit I manage that is not in any project, surname or hg, but is within R1b recently received an email which reads, in part,


"R1b folks, consider 111 Y STRs while on holiday sale
To:
[email protected]
From: Mike Walsh ([email protected])
Sent: 08 December 2015 23:39:34

A message from haplogroup Administrator, Mike Walsh:

People in any R1b subclade from R-M269 on down should consider going to 111 Y STRs or 67 at a minimum.
<lots of spam snipped>
Regards,

Mike Walsh

R1b project administrator"

This raises two questions. Why is this kit getting emails from the admin of a project he isn't in?

More seriously, this raises a fear I have had before. Has the sender of this email been granted access priveleges to kits and results not in projects he runs? In which case that would be a very grave breach of privacy.

I would like to hear from someone on the staff of the company for reassurance.

[T E Peterman]

Does this participant have any matches? If so, they would normally be able to send him emails. There could be a thousand people who match him at y-12 & any of them could send an email.

Timothy Peterman

[mwwalsh]

Please change the title of this grumble - it's misleading

Iain,

That's me. I wrote the letter you are speaking about, however I did not access any kits nor send that email from my laptop or any other computing device. The email is a broadcast from FTDNA's systems so I don't know any of the email IDs or kits #s other than if someone emails me directly.

I recognize that people who do not like FTDNA and basically like anybody but FTDNA don't necessarily appreciate that FTDNA improves its products and provides discounts to customers. However, it is a good thing for the industry overall as competition is increased and FTDNA continues to build the value of the largest database of Y DNA records to go with a complete array of Y DNA tests, from Big Y to SNP Packs to SNP stand-alone tests.

This is why FTDNA is so vital to Y DNA genetic genealogy. There are hundreds of thousands of kits in their database and a vibrant on-line project system as well as matching system. Please read this link:

https://www.familytreedna.com/why-ftdna.aspx

[The_Contemplator]

Is the kit linked to an email that is also used for other kits? Maybe the email was sent to one of the other kits even if they were not R1b members. Nothing to fear at any rate.

[mwwalsh]

Is the kit linked to an email that is also used for other kits? Maybe the email was sent to one of the other kits even if they were not R1b members. Nothing to fear at any rate.

I do not think this email from FTDNA was relegated to any specific project. I just offered to pen the letter for them and offer that they could quote me.

[ikennedy]

The purpose of my post is to elicit a response from an official employee of the company ie someone I might have some leverage over. I have no leverage over some bloke living somewhere unknown who is not a company employee.

The message addresses R1b people so has obviously been targetted and it reads like standard 'project admin spam' as opposed to 'generic company spam'.

However if no-one from the company responds here I will have to get in touch with the management some other way. I don't think its a matter for the helpdesk.

[gtc]

The purpose of my post is to elicit a response from an official employee of the company

In that case contact FTDNA directly. Their senior managers don't read the posts here.

ie someone I might have some leverage over.

Good luck with that, and when you get an answer that is significantly different from the one Mike gave above, be sure to let us know.

[wkauffman]

The points have been made that this is an authorized message from FTDNA specifically targeting individuals who have been identified as having haplogroup R-M269. The only way to avoid these messages is to remove the contact information from the kit and not have it present in any projects. Other individuals will still see the kit on their match lists.

We realize that there are individuals who test and do not want to share their results. Regretfully that goes against the core premise of what the process requires in order to be successful. If all individuals were leaches there would be no results to leach off of.


This is NOT a privacy issue. This is a standard communication operation provided by FTDNA. If you believe there is a privacy issue please educate yourself surrounding what the test results provide in terms of identifying a living individual before going off an wasting FTDNA's time. By consenting to testing and placing the results in the database you have provided some level of access to the information to other individuals.

[David Guetta]

The email is from [email protected] which is the standard FTDNA mass messaging email address. As others have said it is an email from FTDNA partly composed by a project administrator particularly familiar with the matter at hand, so it is a nonissue.

[dna]

To those from Family Tree DNA who read the forum (and if I should repost in another subforum, please tell me).

There would be no issue, if the e-mail was introduced as coming from Family Tree DNA. Anything, even a simple sentence at the top like

Dear Valued Customer,

we are forwarding/passing to you a message from Mike Walsh, that might be of interest to you.

Similarly to possibly many people with busy Internet lives, I have only noticed in multiple mailboxes (of the kits I administer) a message from Mike Walsh.

I am not an easy prey, but you made me. And for quite a long moment, I had actually thought that Mike Walsh himself found those kits through matches of his project members.

Also, please do not send e-mails from "Mike Walsh". Please send them "From Family Tree DNA for Mike Walsh" or something along those lines. It is just a common e-mail netiquette... (OK, maybe not that common , but a very good one to follow).

Mr W

[dna]

@ikennedy, Mike Walsh is innocent here. Please read my post above.

Mr W

[ikennedy]

To those from Family Tree DNA who read the forum (and if I should repost in another subforum, please tell me).

There would be no issue, if the e-mail was introduced as coming from Family Tree DNA. Anything, even a simple sentence at the top like

Dear Valued Customer,

we are forwarding/passing to you a message from Mike Walsh, that might be of interest to you.

Similarly to possibly many people with busy Internet lives, I have only noticed in multiple mailboxes (of the kits I administer) a message from Mike Walsh.

I am not an easy prey, but you made me. And for quite a long moment, I had actually thought that Mike Walsh himself found those kits through matches of his project members.

Also, please do not send e-mails from "Mike Walsh". Please send them "From Family Tree DNA for Mike Walsh" or something along those lines. It is just a common e-mail netiquette... (OK, maybe not that common , but a very good one to follow).

Mr W

This sums up my thoughts. I've had a kit here since 2004 and this is the first time I can remember coming across an email that wasn't either a universal one sent simply from the firm, or a project admin one just to people in their project (who would therefore expect such).