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Ancestry wants your spit, your DNA and your trust. Should you give them all three?

It markets its DNA kits with promises that tug at the heartstrings: Discover ancestors. Strengthen family ties. Understand your life. Aided by venture capital and a flood of savvy marketing, Ancestry LLC has grown to become the world’s largest DNA testing conglomerate. Since 2012, it has lured more than 9 million people to spit into tubes and add their genetic code to the world’s largest private database of DNA. It has also banked away the world’s largest collection of human spittle, numbering in the hundreds of gallons. In the age of Facebook and Google, consumers seem comfortable surrendering their personal information to corporations that aggregate it and monetize it. But Ancestry and other…

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Articles of Interest

A Private Equity Firm Bought Ancestry, and Its Trove of DNA, for $4.7B

The genealogy company Ancestry has been acquired by investment firm Blackstone for $4.7 billion, changing ownership of the company and its trove of user-submitted DNA from a set of investment firms to another private equity firm.

Ancestry.com class action claims company uses real user info in advertisements

Ancestry.com is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly using the names, photos, and likenesses of private individuals to promote paid subscriptions without their consent.

Ancestry.com denies exploiting users' DNA

The company's terms and conditions have stated that users grant the company a "perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license" to their DNA data, for purposes including "personalised products and services".

Ancestry.com is quietly transforming itself into a medical research juggernaut

As Ancestry.com pivots into medical research, it would be wise to learn from the example of 23andMe, which has spent much of its life tangled up with federal regulators. 23andMe is Silicon Valley’s biotech darling—a sexy, headline-grabbing company that was co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, a biologist who married Google co-founder Sergey Brin—but its reception by the government has been less glowing. After being told that it wasn’t allowed to market its spit-in-a-vial genetic test as a medical diagnostic, 23andMe went ahead and did it anyway.

Do a DNA test to 'find out my roots'? That's complicated for a black woman like me

When my cab driver learned that I was rushing to the airport for a flight to Mauritius, he asked whether I knew where I really came from. I did. It was St Louis, Missouri. I shared that some black Americans look to Africa to find a sense of identity and homeland. Not me.

How Ancestry.com has failed African American customers

In attempting to market genealogy as nostalgia, Ancestry.com has at times been insensitive to this often traumatic history. A basic tenet of genealogical research is that white Americans can more easily trace their European ancestors, while black Americans often face a " brick wall" - a dearth of records before emancipation.

Is ancestry.com an invasion of privacy?

There has been some controversy recently, claiming that ancestry.com doesn’t protect users’ privacy when they submit DNA samples. The complaints claim that the website keeps the DNA on file and will use it for various purposes — such as in answer to a subpoena or if there’s a warrant to search when authorities are investigating a crime.

MyHeritage vs AncestryDNA 2025: Which One Is Better?

Choosing between MyHeritage and AncestryDNA for your genetic testing needs can be a tough decision. Both have unique strengths and cater to different user preferences. MyHeritage is a popular choice because of its comprehensive, user-friendly experience. Known for its fast processing time, MyHeritage delivers results quicker than most of its competitors. MyHeritage is also the cheaper ancestry test.

The complete guide to choosing: Ancestry vs Find My Past

So back in the world of reality, here’s my final thoughts. Ancestry is a titan and its really cornered the ability to combine DNA with UK research. But FMP is growing rapidly. Its seen the launch of some fantastic new data sets. Its upping its offering. I don’t see either of these giants going anywhere or working together. SO, if you have to decide between one of them, then you have to do your research. You have to really dive deep into those data sets and play with their functionality.

The Molehill and the Mountain

What are you going to do, DNA Geek? Me? I’m not going to do a darned thing. My public trees will stay public. My private trees will stay private. And I will continue to use Ancestry, along with MyHeritage and FamilySearch, as my primary online tree repository.

The Problems with Ancestry DNA Analyses

Although some people purchase kits from multiple companies, the majority of people take just one test. Each person who buys genetic analysis from Ancestry, for example, consents to having his/her data become part of Ancestry’s enormous database, which is used to perform the analyses that people pay for. There are some interesting implications to how these databases are built. First, they are primarily made up of paying customers, which means that the vast majority of genetic datasets in Ancestry’s database come from people who have enough disposable income to purchase the kit and analysis. It may not seem like an important detail, but it shows that the comparison population is not the same as the general population.

This database could help descendants of enslaved people learn about their ancestry

If you're interested in learning more about your ancestors, you may be one of many people who've used ancestry.com to trace your genealogy. Now that website has released a new, free database of tens of thousands of old newspaper records about formerly enslaved people. The company hopes that information will help fill historical gaps for Black Americans and other researchers.

Would you trust Ancestry.com with your DNA?

Ancestry.com now holds the genetic code of more than five million people — the largest private database of DNA in corporate history. The company also holds the most expansive stockpile of human spittle, which is used to run the DNA tests, with some estimates placing it in the hundreds of gallons. The firm says it has state-of-the-art security systems in place to prevent hacking and security breaches of its genetic database.

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AncestryDNA

Are you ready to learn what your DNA says about your ancestral origins? AncestryDNA® or AncestryDNA® + Traits can help you along your path of discovery.