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It has come to our knowledge that when speaking to a Genealogical Society, a representative of another lab criticized "other" DNA labs for keeping DNA samples, saying that it might be possible that insurance companies could obtain the same.
Since the subject is related to a privacy issue, it has prompted us to start this thread.
That representative should know it better: insurance companies don't need to look for our samples in order to obtain DNA from their customers or from people applying for insurance. Any of you who purchased a life insurance know that right after you submitted the application, you received a phone call to schedule a visit from someone that would interview you, make you step on a scale and draw some blood. And any of you who has a health insurance policy knows about all the rights that the insurance company has about your health information.
Moreover, the fact that your DNA is preserved at a university lab, under State and Federal usage guidelines, not even places it in the same league to the questions that the representative was raising.
We preserve the DNA , which means the raw DNA. For example, we have been selling the DNAPrint tests and as such we can just pull diluted solution and send it to their lab for testing... The thousands of customers who have come back for a test refinement from 12 to 25 markers know how valid it is to keep the DNA in storage. When we launch more Y markers or other genealogy related tests become available in the future, that will again prove its importance.
It also needs to be noted that just because a lab says it disposes of the DNA appropriately, there are no checks available to make sure that is the case. Conversely, with the Family Tree DNA set up, our labs and business are separate and protected by a multitude of federal laws that keep the donors anonymous. All communications are kept separate from the lab and codes are needed to look at data. For the lab our customers are just numbers without association to any other data. Therefore, the lab cannot even use it for scientific or academic research, since there's no relevant information attached to the sample!
Prior to the begining of Family Tree DNA, experts were asked how to maintain confidentiallity and their suggestions were implemented to protect eah and every individual.
Since the subject is related to a privacy issue, it has prompted us to start this thread.
That representative should know it better: insurance companies don't need to look for our samples in order to obtain DNA from their customers or from people applying for insurance. Any of you who purchased a life insurance know that right after you submitted the application, you received a phone call to schedule a visit from someone that would interview you, make you step on a scale and draw some blood. And any of you who has a health insurance policy knows about all the rights that the insurance company has about your health information.
Moreover, the fact that your DNA is preserved at a university lab, under State and Federal usage guidelines, not even places it in the same league to the questions that the representative was raising.
We preserve the DNA , which means the raw DNA. For example, we have been selling the DNAPrint tests and as such we can just pull diluted solution and send it to their lab for testing... The thousands of customers who have come back for a test refinement from 12 to 25 markers know how valid it is to keep the DNA in storage. When we launch more Y markers or other genealogy related tests become available in the future, that will again prove its importance.
It also needs to be noted that just because a lab says it disposes of the DNA appropriately, there are no checks available to make sure that is the case. Conversely, with the Family Tree DNA set up, our labs and business are separate and protected by a multitude of federal laws that keep the donors anonymous. All communications are kept separate from the lab and codes are needed to look at data. For the lab our customers are just numbers without association to any other data. Therefore, the lab cannot even use it for scientific or academic research, since there's no relevant information attached to the sample!
Prior to the begining of Family Tree DNA, experts were asked how to maintain confidentiallity and their suggestions were implemented to protect eah and every individual.
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