Ancestry.com takes DNA ownership rights from customers and their relatives
By Joel Winston,
Medium
| 05. 17. 2017
A word to the wise: Read the complete terms of service.
Don’t use the AncestryDNA testing service without actually reading the Ancestry.com Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. According to these legal contracts, you still own your DNA, but so does Ancestry.com.
The family history website Ancestry.com is selling a new DNA testing service called AncestryDNA. But the DNA and genetic data that Ancestry.com collects may be used against “you or a genetic relative.” According to its privacy policies, Ancestry.com takes ownership of your DNA forever. Your ownership of your DNA, on the other hand, is limited in years.
It seems obvious that customers agree to this arrangement, since all of them must “click here to agree” to these terms. But, how many people really read those contacts before clicking to agree? And how many relatives of Ancestry.com customers are also reading?
There are three significant provisions in the AncestryDNA Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to consider on behalf of yourself and your genetic relatives: (1) the perpetual, royalty-free, world-wide license to use your DNA; (2) the warning that DNA...
Related Articles
By Fyodor Urnov, The CRIPSR Journal | 10.18.2024
The field of clinical gene editing has a bona fide crisis on its hands—a crisis that has to, and can be, promptly resolved.
An outside observer of our field might be surprised by this and say—what crisis? The first...
By Walt Bogdanich and Carson Kessler, The New York Times | 10.23.2024
By 2021, nearly 2,000 volunteers had answered the call to test an experimental Alzheimer’s drug known as BAN2401. For the drugmaker Eisai, the trial was a shot at a windfall — potentially billions of dollars — for defanging a disease...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 10.21.2024
Kendric Cromer, 12, left Children’s National Hospital in a wheelchair on Wednesday, wearing a T-shirt and cap printed with designs from the anime series “Naruto” and a black face mask. Staff lined the hallway, cheering and waving noisemakers. He had...
By Deena Beasley, Reuters | 09.28.2024
Student Zoe Davis, 20, was just weeks into her junior year when she landed back in the hospital with severe sickle cell pain earlier this month. She is doing what she can to prevent the crippling attacks in her arms...
