[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] GEDMATCH AND FTDNA ALERT

[Earl Schultz]

Item #4 from FTDNA is clearly in error.  On each individual’s home page there is a link to their “Site Policy Statement”.  The security at GEDMATCH is at least as high as FTDNA’s.  This does not give me a lot of confidence in what FTDNA is saying.



Earl

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>Message: 3
>Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2016 07:07:50 +1100
>From: Caroline Brymora <carolinebrymora at gmail.com>
>To: Irene Sinkovits <cdnirene at gmail.com>
>Cc: "ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org" <ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org>
>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] GEDMATCH AND FTDNA ALERT
>Message-ID:
>	<CAFAa4_0qeod75QCax1yF8x0_Jt7HdH0R+=Sjor-WwApR38tzUA at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
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>And I've just seen this:
>Not sure where it has been put up or if it was emailed.
>
>Just posted from FTDNA ... Family Tree DNA
>1 min ?
>
>We are reaching out to our customers to make some important clarifications
>to what is being published regarding GEDMatch stopping the upload of Family
>Tree DNA results.
>
>1. Let it be clear: the DNA test results, including any raw data available
>to the customers through their personal page, belongs to the owner of the
>DNA record, and not to Family Tree DNA.
>
>2. The owner of the DNA record, consequently, can voluntarily submit
>his/her results to any other outfit, so long as by doing so, the customer
>does not compromise the privacy of any of his/her matches, or any records
>in the Family Tree DNA database.
>
>3. More than one customer that has uploaded their FamilyTreeDNA data to
>GEDMatch has contacted us about a way for people to breach the privacy of a
>person's Family Tree DNA record, when uploading their information to
>GEDMatch.
>
>4. At the time of the publication of this note, GEDMatch does not have
>Privacy Terms, nor General Terms & Conditions published on their home page,
>or on their registration page prior to registering, and thus, customers are
>not aware of the privacy risks associated with uploading their data to
>GEDMatch
>
>5. FamilyTreeDNA has tried to reach out to GEDMatch to discuss this subject
>to find ways to eliminate the risk of potential data breach. We were
>surprised by their unilateral note on GEDmatch about the discontinuation of
>the uploads in lieu of a fix, and the new note about supposed threats of
>lawsuits from us.
>
>6. It is regretful that GEDMatch, who has been a long time business
>associate and whose owners tested with FamilyTreeDNA, misrepresented our
>concerns and precipitated a chain of events that could have easily being
>solved through dialogue.
>
>7. Nevertheless, and always thinking about what is best for customers, we
>are open to discuss with GEDMatch ways to avoid the risks to privacy that
>they recognize to exist in their system and we encourage those that would
>like the upload to be reestablished and privacy issues being taken care of
>to reach out to GEDMach.
>
>As always, we thank you for your continued support.
>
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