Privacy Concerns.Direct one to one comparison only

[tempest]

Hi,We wish to solve a family mystery and have tracked down a person who is willing to undergo a DNA test to maybe solve the mystery. But this person has concerns re privacy. He says "I expressly do not wish my data to be shared/stored for any other purpose than comparison with your brother" and "what guarantees are in place so my data will only be used in this instance ie Comparison with your brother only"
I intend to use FTDNA and can satisfy him on company privacy policy.I guess what I am asking is, once the test results are sent to him and my brother is there a way of comparing them online with each other only, without having him posting them on the internet for others to compare results? I am new to all this and have yet to open an account yet and will have to assure him of privacy before he will proceed. I guess once the comparison is made with my brother he can then delete his account to ensure his privacy continues to be protected. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

[MMaddi]

My understanding of FTDNA's matching/privacy policy is that it's all or nothing. There's no way I know of that you can just compare someone's results to just one other person in the database.

Of course, you should check with FTDNA if they could make such an arrangement. Frankly, I don't think that they will.

Perhaps you can go with traditional paternity/family testing, as used in courts of law. However, my understanding is that those tests are significantly more expensive than an autosomal test at FTDNA or their competitors and less accurate because it uses a different methodology. Also, if the relationship you're trying to prove is more distant than aunt-uncle/niece-nephew or grandparent/grandchild or perhaps first cousins, I don't think a traditional paternity test would be accurate enough for your purposes.

[georgian1950]

Can you give an alias for the name which the kit belongs to and then do your analysis and delete the kit.

I had an interesting thing a few years back where I came up with a strong match to a kit with just a given name on it. It turns out that one of the genetic genealogy professionals had run it for a subject of one of the TV shows. She never would tell me who it was, but I think I have it figured out now.

Jack

[MMaddi]

Can you give an alias for the name which the kit belongs to and then do your analysis and delete the kit.

That's an excellent idea. That's a common way for researchers to get relatives who are concerned about privacy to test. Just use initials and only you'll know who the person is.

[prairielad]

At FTDNA this person would log on to kit (can be done before testing has been completed)
Believe he will have to sign initial release form though....can always contact FTDNA to clarify on that part....

have him use alias and an email address which is not his main email.

Go to Privacy Settings > Match and Email Settings

Depending on test type (yDNA, mtDNA or Family Finder), Set all levels of matching to No

Once testing is complete, you can get him to temporarily enable level of testing to see if match shows (This will also show him to all other matches that happen to be checking while it is enabled).
Disable matching again when finished.

What type of test would you like this person to do?
If Family Finder, there is a utility by David Pike that will allow you to compare two Raw Data files if they are willing to share Raw Data with you (send you file).

[ltd-jean-pull]

I had an interesting thing a few years back where I came up with a strong match to a kit with just a given name on it. It turns out that one of the genetic genealogy professionals had run it for a subject of one of the TV shows. She never would tell me who it was, but I think I have it figured out now.

Jack

That's not very reassuring for the poster.

One of my kits has a match that comes up as paternal, and just initials. I happen to know the kit manager and e-mailed to let her know that this matching segment was probably from Lancashire or Yorkshire. She has promised this person not to divulge anything about them, which is fine. They only share about an 8th of the DNA which is shared with the 3rd cousin anyway, so it's probably very distant.

[georgian1950]

That's not very reassuring for the poster.

Of course I had a limited number of people to choose from who were the subjects of that season. I also could rule out the males.

Jack

[rivergirl]

Which test are you considering?

If it is testing for yDNA, he could decline to be in the match database or set all the matching levels to NO.
When his test result is in, he can send you a screenshot of his STR results.
If FTDNA still send certificates with the STRs he can send a copy to you.


If its for a FF test, use an alias or remove the name and email and/or use a disposable email. Eg gmail.
Set all levels of matching to NO.
At some stage the tester will have to change the settings to see if you match and can then change the settings back to NO.

[MoberlyDrake]

And you don't have to use initials. Use nonsense like "Pink Pig" or something. My cousin has a match named Baby Bear and I have one named Pitypat. It's hard to make any guesses as to who they might be! I also have Mr. Unknown.

[MoberlyDrake]

BTW, Mr. Unknown's email address is [email protected]. This, of course gives him the ability to stay in the database and take advantage of his matches without giving a thing in return!!!

Don't make these changes until the results come in, just in case FTDNA needs to contact this person because the sample is bad and they need another one or something. They would need correct contact info.

[tempest]

Privacy Concerns

Thanks everyone for your considered replies. You have been very helpful. It is a FF test he will use and will get him to use a alias. Thanks again.

[loobster]

Using an alias DOES NOT keep results/matches private - just means folks will not / may not know whose results it is. If he is cool with this, great.
FTDNA stores the DNA for 25 years. I believe it might be possible for him to request they destroy it after you have checked the results, but, again, if he is cool with the alias, do not push for that to be done.

Generally, here, nobody asks for the no matching, because that is the whole point. But they do explicitly tell you that is optional. This suggests an instance where one might want to use that option.
To do what he actually wants - I believe what you / he would do is send results in to FTDNA but DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION for matches.
Then, when results in, download his and your brother's raw DNA results (see GEDmatch for which version) and upload both to Gedmatch - with at least those for the person wanting no one else to see results as Private.
Then you will be able to compare those two, one-to-one, but no one else will see any results/matches to him unless you provide the Kit Number.
It would be between you and he to convince him once you downloaded the results that you would not keep the file. (And that you will delete it from Gedmatch.)