Do we think that the AncestryDNA testing is accurate? I got a test as a gift and just got my results - 50% British, 40% Eastern European and 10% other. I don't know how they can tell that from saliva. My parents were both German. My daughter suggests my wife and I both take the test and then she does to see if hers is an average if her parents'.
Saliva contains DNA.
However, telling different types of Europeans apart, especially Germans, is often impossible, unless you are a unique population like the Basque, Fins, Sami, etc.... There have been multiple waves of German invaders into the British Isles: Celts, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, etc... and then the secondary invaders, which would also carry German DNA, Normans, Vikings, etc...
Telling the average German's DNA from the average British person DNA isn't really possible. My guess is they are identifying what is "British" by using a mixture of German plus other British founding populations. That's not going to provide you with any certainty to percentage though, as for example you could be German plus another founding non-British population.
Oh goodie, mixing genetic testing and hacking. Should be interesting to see how things like this affects people in the US and their ability to get health insurance in the future.
A bad actor offered to sell information on 23andMe’s users, calling out Jewish people specifically
Fourteen million people have shared their genetic information with 23andMe in hopes of learning more about their heritage. After a hack that appeared to target people with Jewish ancestry, some might be wondering how to cut ties with the company.
That article is behind a paywall and I can't read it, but isn't the "hack" someone that used peoples stolen email addresses and passwords to log in to their 23andme account? Basically they used the same login/pass combo as was stolen elsewhere and tried it? I don't think there was an actual breach of login info or data.
Coles notes, don't use the same password's over and over again.
Discovering your presumed father is not your biological father: Psychiatric ramifications of independently uncovered non-paternity events resulting from direct-to-consumer DNA testing
Hard pass. Not interested in the insurance implications, handing over my DNA profile to a company, learning things I don’t want to know, or giving up my chance to get away with any future heists.
Not too surprised, I was gifted an ancestry test and one of the first things I noticed what that it pretty much proved the veracity of my family tree. The aunts and cousins who were popping up were all the correct people, and can only imagine several have had the opposite experience.
Discovering your presumed father is not your biological father: Psychiatric ramifications of independently uncovered non-paternity events resulting from direct-to-consumer DNA testing
With 5% of users finding they have an unexpected parent, that's massive. I don't know if I'd call it a "risk", but it's definitely something most users should be prepared for. Not gonna lie, I had doubts about one of my brothers, who didn't have all the family traits, but he was legit.
That article is behind a paywall and I can't read it, but isn't the "hack" someone that used peoples stolen email addresses and passwords to log in to their 23andme account? Basically they used the same login/pass combo as was stolen elsewhere and tried it? I don't think there was an actual breach of login info or data.
Coles notes, don't use the same password's over and over again.
This is what they have posted on their portal:
Addressing Data Security Concerns
October 6, 2023
We recently learned that certain 23andMe customer profile information that they opted into sharing through our DNA Relatives feature, was compiled from individual 23andMe.com accounts without the account users’ authorization.
After learning of suspicious activity, we immediately began an investigation. While we are continuing to investigate this matter, we believe threat actors were able to access certain accounts in instances where users recycled login credentials – that is, usernames and passwords that were used on 23andMe.com were the same as those used on other websites that have been previously hacked.
We believe that the threat actor may have then, in violation of our Terms of Service, accessed 23andMe.com accounts without authorization and obtained information from certain accounts, including information about users’ DNA Relatives profiles, to the extent a user opted into that service.
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