Gedmatch privacy

[Phoenix]

An Ancestry contact is asking me to upload to Gedmatch, so she can work out how we are related.

This potentially affects sib's child and cousin as well.

Can you set information so that it is only available to one other person?

I know that Gedmatch has different privacy rules to Ancestry. Seeing information I have given naively to fellow researchers in the past plastered all over Ancestry, I am extremely reluctant to divulge information that could - say - affect sib's child in fifty years time.

If you have used Gedmatch, have you read all the privacy notices? Are there any aspects which concern you?

In so many instances, once you have released information, you lose all control over it. Is that the case with Gedmatch?

[kiterunner]

I haven't uploaded my DNA data to GEDmatch because I don't think that it is private enough. I have read the privacy notices and I have made an account (so I could see how it works. But I didn't upload my DNA data). Supposedly people can only view your DNA data, matches etc if they know your kit number. But as I understand it, you can set as much privacy as you like, but if someone wants to trawl through all possible kit numbers (perhaps using some kind of bot) and look at the info for each one, there is no way to stop them, although apparently the email addresses can't be copied and pasted, but that doesn't mean they can't be copied some other way and stored. I have read various blogs discussing GEDmatch privacy issues and they did not convince me to use it. Their argument seemed to be that the people running GEDmatch are doing it for good reasons, so don't worry about the possibility of someone using it for bad purposes.

I did come across some posts on other sites where people have posted up kit numbers (not their own) so that others can look at DNA for various ethnicities. And I did find a post from someone whose kit number had been posted up on a site without their consent. So I am wary!

For instance, look at this:
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?245352-Random-GEDmatch-kits

Also, you would have no control over who your contact passes your kit number on to.

[kiterunner]

Another thing - I think it would also be possible for someone to get to your info by searching the GEDCOM database for one of your ancestors, then look through the matches for the owner of that GEDCOM. (I mean even if you haven't uploaded a GEDCOM of your own.)

[Phoenix]

Thank you, Kite.

I've heard Turi King (the scientist who worked on Richard III) and she indicated that Ancestry's privacy was good, but GEDmatch was the way the police authorities in America used DNA to identify a killer.
I heard a worrying programme on the radio a few months ago, and although the speaker was not as well-informed as she might have been, talking about Ancestry when she meant a different site, I feel that this is too much in its infancy to hand data over without due care.

[Kit]

I registered and uploaded and set my privacy to research so no one could see anything while I had a look around. I found it very confusing and have deleted the account. However if you know how I think people can look at every part of your DNA, rather than ancestry where they can just see you match. So in effect, I think, you are basically giving them your raw data.

[Mary from Italy]

Supposedly people can only view your DNA data, matches etc if they know your kit number.

You can find somebody's kit number on there very easily.