There is virtually no known way in which these DNA tests can adversely affect a person’s privacy. With the tests that are performed, medical information cannot be extracted, nor can a person’s tendency for genetic diseases be determined. Tests are performed only on junk sites on the male “Y” chromosome, that is, the sites do not control any function in the body. What can be determined is the likelihood or not of a recent common ancestor with other participants in our surname group, or other surname groups, which is the sole purpose of the test. If you sent in the release form with your tests, you allowed the laboratory to give out your name & your e-mail address to other participants that you match, and how closely that match is. The actual test results are not revealed. My charts in this Journal and on my webpage do publish the test results, but I do not publicize the participant’s names. Diligent comparisons of lab information with charts and text in this Journal may, with difficulty and in only a few instances, allow connecting DNA tests results with participants. Even then, however, it is difficult to imagine how the information could be detrimental to the individual involved. For myself, I have opted to use my full name with all my DNA results. Although I will not specifically give out your name and test results, you may do so at will.
