Legal Issues
Family Tree DNA follows stringent policies for protecting your privacy according
to state legislation guidelines. We control the Surname Database Library and genetic
testing scores. Family Tree DNA only shares limited information with testing facilities.
Both the University of Arizona testing lab and our Genomics Research Center follow
strict guidelines to ensure your privacy.
In addition to the PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT below, Family Tree DNA
also adheres to the following
SAFE HARBOR PRIVACY STATEMENT in connection with the transfer and protection
of "personal information" received from the European Union (EU) or Switzerland.
Family Tree DNA accepts the responsibility to keep your specific data private, at
the same time, making enough general information public to allow us to build a Surname
Database library usable for genealogical purposes.
To accomplish this Family Tree DNA allows you to do the following:
You may search the existing Surname Database Library to see if the surname you are
searching is already there. If it is, you may order your DNA test kit and return
to search to see that the database has increased under your surname. If the name
you want to search is not there, you may order your test kit and then return to
the database to see your surname registered. When you place your order, the order
form will ask you to enter the surname for the direct paternal line.
Privacy and Confidentiality Statement
Your unique test kit number will accompany your collection tube to the testing lab.
The computer-generated number and your surname is the only information about you
that the testing facility will see. Once the lab completes your DNA test, Family
Tree DNA enters the test results in a secure database. We then perform a comparison
between your specific genetic results and those of others in the database.
If the matching program finds a genetic match between you and another person in
the database and you have each signed the release form Family Tree DNA will notify you via e-mail.
If a genetic match is found between you and another individual who enters the library
at some time in the future, both will be given the information that a potential
match is in the database provided that BOTH of you have signed the release form. Only where both parties have signed the release
form will we release contact information concerning the separate parties to the
other party. In this way, all persons in the database will have the right to decide
if they want to contact their genetic match(es).
Family Tree DNA maintains strict privacy and confidentiality
Project Participation
Family Tree DNA provides the option to participate in one or more projects. This
may help you learn more by working with others who may share similar ancestry. If
you choose to participate in a project, the project administrator will be able to
view your results and contact information so that he or she may best help members
of the project learn about their ancestry.
So that members can share information more easily, projects often have a public
website displaying member results. The free website that Family Tree DNA provides
to projects lists member results by kit number. Results tables and maps on the free
public website may include a participant’s oldest known ancestor, the ancestor’s
country of origin, surname, and full name.
You may join or leave projects at any time at no charge.
You can view a list of projects here.
It is important to note that while Family Tree DNA does not impose a limit to the
number of projects one can join, we will not tolerate customers joining multiple
projects with the purpose of data mining or finding information that is not relevant
to one's personal ancestral origins. Family Tree DNA reserves the right to remove
people from projects at our sole discretion or if it feels that a participant is
abusing the system in a way that may infringe another participant's privacy.
The mtDNA full sequence test contains some genes in the coding region (CR). By default,
these results are unavailable to the project administrators. You may choose to allow
your project administrators to view your coding region results on the My Account
– Results Display Settings page of your myFTDNA Account (personal page).
A "Relevant Match" as stated in the
release form is one of the following:
Relevant Matches
** Note: When a Y-Chromosome STR marker comparison differs by more than one, the
matching program takes genetic distance rather than the number of mismatching markers
into consideration. This is because for most STR markers, each step difference is
as meaningful as mismatches on additional markers.