|
Confidentiality |
|
|
The Riggs/Rigg DNA Study Group Website
|
Confidentiality |
|
|
Are the tests confidential? YES!
There are two aspects to this answer: confidentiality of the YDNA signature (the "result"), and protection of the sample:
1. Confidentiality of your YDNA signature. It is important to understand that a signature is just a list of numbers (see What is a YDNA signature? for details). It contains no personal information. Most importantly to most people, it does not contain information about possible diseases. It contains no personal information (this bears repeating). In fact, the portions of the Y chromosome used for our test are sometimes called "junk DNA" since they do not contain genes. About 95% of the Y chromosome is "junk". The markers we use are in that part. Nevertheless, we treat your YDNA signature confidentially in the Riggs/Rigg DNA Study Group. It is shared, however, with other members of the Study Group. So it is more accurate to say that your YDNA signature is confidential to within the Riggs/Rigg DNA Study Group. The signatures are online (see www.FamilyTreeDNA.com/public/RiggsYDNA/) but they are not identified with any person, as you can verify for yourself.
2. Protection of the sample. This is important. FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) and the laboratories at the University of Arizona do not, will not, and cannot use your sample for any other purpose whatsoever. The reputations of both depend completely on this trust and it is in writing. The reason your sample is preserved, and not destroyed after use, is so that the labs can retest (without requesting another sample from you) in case something fails in the testing process, or, more importantly, I have found, so that you can upgrade your test to a larger number of markers. Many persons in the Riggs/Rigg DNA Study Group have upgraded over time. It would be a burden if resampling had to occur each time before this could happen.
The company used for this DNA study is
Browse my entire site. Or my genealogy site. Or just the special Edwardian Riggs site.
Alvy Ray Smith, Group Administrator
