For over 20 years, people have trusted us with their personal and family information. As the leader in consumer DNA testing, we are committed to upholding our privacy principles. We want you to feel safe and informed when you make new discoveries with us. Your privacy is very important to us. Please see our Privacy Statement and Privacy Center for additional information.
DNA samples are tested in a secure third-party testing lab in the United States. Throughout the testing process, we separate your identity from your DNA sample and use only your unique registration code to track your DNA. Your results are encrypted and stored in our database, which employs a number of security measures, and we protect your information from unauthorized access, both from outside and inside AncestryDNA®.
Who sees your results
You decide who can see your DNA results, how much they can see, and what they can do with them.
When registering your kit, you choose if you want to see and be seen by your DNA matches. If you choose to be listed as a DNA match, you can decide if they see your full results or only what you have in common. If you choose not to be listed as a DNA match, others won't be able to see that you're a match or view your ancestral origins. You can change these settings at any time. For help, see Turning Matches On or Off.
When sharing your DNA results, you can pick from these options:
- Basic overview: Share a summary of your ancestral origins.
- Viewer: Allow someone to see your full results and matches but not make any changes.
- Collaborator: Allow someone to see your full results, add notes, group matches, link to a family tree, and more.
- Manager: Allow someone to see your full results and matches, make changes, invite others, assign and change roles, delete results, download data, and more. (You can have one manager at a time and can add or remove them whenever you want.)
To learn how we respond to requests from law enforcement, check out our Transparency Report and Guide for Law Enforcement.
DNA privacy settings
You control your DNA information and how it’s shared.
To manage your DNA privacy settings, go to your DNA settings page (Profile > Account Settings > DNA) and select a test.
From there, you can adjust the following settings:
- Test name: Change the name on your test.
- Gender representation: Choose how you appear and are described to your matches, like “daughter” or “child.”
- Research consent: Opt in or out of the Ancestry Human Diversity Project.
- Survey consent: Opt in or out of sharing DNA survey responses that help improve products, compare results, and support research.
- DNA matches: Decide if you want to see and be seen by your DNA matches.
- Ancestral origins: Choose if your matches see your full results or only shared regions.
- Compare traits: Choose which trait groups you share with your invitees and what they can see.
- DNA test sharing: Invite others to view or manage your results.
- Download DNA Data: Download the lab-generated data for your DNA sample as a text (.txt) file.
- Delete DNA test: Permanently delete your DNA test results.
You can also choose to permanently delete your entire Ancestry account.
