Your DNA Is Not Your Culture; The Atlantic, September 25, 2018

Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic; Your DNA Is Not Your Culture

"DNA, these marketing campaigns imply, reveals something essential about you. And it’s working. Thanks to television-ad blitzes and frequent holiday sales, genetic-ancestry tests have soared in popularity in the past two years. More than 15 million people have now traded their spit for insights into their family history.

If this were simply about wearing kilts or liking Ed Sheeran, these ads could be dismissed as, well, ads. They’re just trying to sell stuff, shrug. But marketing campaigns for genetic-ancestry tests also tap into the idea that DNA is deterministic, that genetic differences are meaningful. They trade in the prestige of genomic science, making DNA out to be far more important in our cultural identities than it is, in order to sell more stuff.

First, the accuracy of these tests is unproven (as detailed here and here). But putting that aside, consider simply what it means to get a surprise result of, say, 15 percent German. If you speak no German, celebrate no German traditions, have never cooked German food, and know no Germans, what connection is there, really? Cultural identity is the sum total of all of these experiences. DNA alone does not supersede it."

A woman says an Ancestry.com DNA test revealed her father — her parents’ fertility doctor; The Washington Post, April 3, 2018

Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post; A woman says an Ancestry.com DNA test revealed her father — her parents’ fertility doctor

[Kip Currier: I've been lecturing on some of the upshots and the downsides of DNA testing the past few years in my Information Ethics course and for guest talks in a colleague's Research Data Management (RDM) course. Advertising for DNA testing has exploded this past year on television and radio. These ads, in my view, are very irresponsible in presenting DNA tests as utterly carefree and adventurous (connect with your ancestral homelands! find out the history of your long-lost ancestors!), without adequately alerting people to the very significant, potentially harmful aspects they can present.

This article is one cautionary tale about unexpected consequences of DNA tests.]

"After news of the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for Ancestry.com said in a statement Tuesday that DNA testing “helps people make new and powerful discoveries about their family history and identity.

“We are committed to delivering the most accurate results, however with this, people may learn of unexpected connections,” it read. “With Ancestry, customers maintain ownership and control over their DNA data. Anyone who takes a test can change their DNA matching settings at any time, meaning that if they opt out, their profile and relationship will not be visible to other customers.”

Since the situation came to light, Rowlette and her parents have been “suffering immeasurably,” the lawsuit says."