Is Ancestry LLC the Devil? Or Just his Little Brother?

I awoke this morning to a front page story in the Tacoma News Tribune where the authors question whether we should trust Ancestry LLC. Goodness, the article took two/thirds of front page, with the headline above the fold. Although I no longer get the Tribune sent to my home, I do get the front page sent to my phone every morning. So I went next door, to the Around the Corner Cafe, and spent $1.50 for 4 sheets of paper (including the Sports section). The headline was Ancestry LLC wants your trust, but does it deserve it? – with smaller red lettering of “DNA FOR SALE.”

When I got into the office, I went online and found numerous papers running the story, which was researched and published by the McClatchy News Service.

Why now? Why all the fuss in May of 2018? Ancestry has been at the center of at least a bit of controversy for years. People either love ’em or hate ’em. I guess I should hate them, as the company had a lot to do with Heritage Quest not being the multibillion operation that Ancestry is today. We were head-on-head competitors during the late 1990s and early 2000s. One of the companies was going to win. Ancestry purchased RootsWeb (with whom we had our hosting contracts), had access to more capital and they won. I got over it. Ancestry went on to become a powerhouse genealogy database operation. Now the company is the leader in DNA testing. That makes them a big target.

Sure – I have my complaints about things that Ancestry has done over the years. The shut-down of MyFamily.com was irritating. The purchase of RootsWeb, and the subsequent hacking thereof could have been handled a lot better. And their Terms of Service are so lengthy that most users simply ignore what they are signing (a habit that all big Internet companies who use our data seem to have). And I’m certainly not going to state that the things they are accused of didn’t happen.

On the other hand… Yes, the big BUT… I absolutely love their services. Speaking for myself, and myself alone, I wouldn’t even consider being without their services today. Their genealogy databases are unmatched, although FamilySearch is right up there… Their online user trees are amazing, although MyHeritage is giving them some great competition. And their DNA tests are thus far the most successful (in terms of numbers) of all the major companies.

So why are we hearing this in May of 2018?

McClatchy claims they did a three-month review that “reveals a pattern of breached promises, security concerns and inflated marketing pledges.” As my daddy would say, “Them’s fighting words.” Their evidence of breached promises seems to be the shut-down of MyFamily.com. Some of us saw that coming years before it actually took place. The business model didn’t work. Granted, they could have handled the shut-down better, and many of us were rightfully angry. The article says that people lost “treasured family history,” and they did. However, it was also a wake-up call for those us with family data. Never keep our stuff in one place! Always have a back-up, or two, or three, somewhere else. Don’t depend on any online service to be the sole keeper of our memories. Sorry… But this is OLD NEWS.

The security concerns deal with the hacking of RootsWeb (55,000 Ancestry customer log-in info was compromised) – and the ventures into DNA data, where security and our DNA identity have been in the news. I agree. Security of our log-in data is a big deal. Too many people use the same log-in password for everything. We’re all told not to do it, but many do it anyway… As deals with DNA security, I don’t see how the data, and even the physical sample – could be any more secure. The authors of the article acknowledged that they were unable to ascertain the location of the samples – a good thing from my way of thinking.

As to AncestryDNA’s claims “to beat its competitors in accurate analysis of a person’s ethnicity,” the writer states that company officials reveal that Ancestry has wide gaps in its ethnic markers for Asia and other sections of the world.” Duh… All the DNA testing companies make claims showing why their company is better than the others. They highlight the positive aspects of their product. And as for “gaps” – sure, there are still huge areas of the world’s populace who haven’t had a lot of DNA testing. But compare where we are today to just 5 years ago. Those gaps are all closing and given time, without overarching governmental and media interference, they will close entirely.

A seeming complaint is made in the article that “Most Ancestry customers consent to have their DNA results, in a de-identified form, shared with the company’s research partners” – firms “in the pursuit of sciences, including the finding of cures to diseases.” The article goes on to note a “vanity project” sponsored by silicon valley billionaires wishing to live longer. There’s nothing like a little “class envy” thrown in to point out the evils of a successful company.

Again, why now?
I suppose that I could just take it for granted that McClatchy needed a news story. And that may be all there is to it. I could also guess that with the overwhelming success of their DNA testing services made Ancestry.com a good target, even if it took dragging up old complaints. I could also suggest that the success of DNA matching by our police agencies is not at all popular with many modern civil-libertarians. We’re hearing a lot about the risk that our taking DNA tests is having on our “relatives.” It’s now possible that our relatives that may be murderers and rapists can now be caught because we took a DNA test. Hardly a day goes by that we aren’t hearing about another cold case being broken with the use of DNA. While GEDmatch has been used to crack most of these cases, Ancestry is a good target for complaint, as they are the firm most successful in cajoling us into getting the test done in the first place.

I’m not going to answer my question of ‘Why now?” But it’s certainly something to ponder. And again, “Is Ancestry LLC the Devil, or just his little brother?”

Read the article for yourself. See: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/article210692689.html.

UPDATE: May 30, 2018
The saga continues. McClatchy continues their inditement of Ancestry LLC with an article featuring my old friend, Paul Allen (the lesser). Paul was one of the two founders of the data-related company as we know it today (the original ownership of Ancestry by John Sitner was print-publishing related). It was under Paul and Dan’s leadership that MyFamily.com was formed. Paul rightfully airs some of his disappointments in the article – especially as deals with the shuttering of MyFamily.

The article goes on to take on Ancestry for shutting down support of the desk-top program, Family Tree Maker, as well as the closing of access to DNA results from the Sorenson database (Sorenson was an early pioneer in DNA testing for genealogical purposes, purchased by Ancestry). I was one of those who lost access, as I was one of those folks who got tested years ago.

By the way, not mentioned is the fact that Family Tree Maker was picked up not long after Ancestry decided to shut down support – and it continues to thrive the ownership of the Software MacKiev Company. The desktop program runs under both Windows and Mac.

Read the full article, published May 30 at the Miami Herald website.

LAST THOUGHTS ON WEDNESDAY, March 30, 2018
With all the negative press of the last couple days – in the papers and on social media, I still haven’t changed my opinion. I believe that the good done by Ancestry LLC far outweighs the bad. Yes – they’ve made some serious mistakes, mistakes that could have killed the company – and I took them on, writing of my displeasure when dumb things were done. But they survived the mistakes and continue to give some great services to genealogists.

Then again, as my readers know, I always see the glass as half-full. I believe that I’m blessed with the ability to see the best in people. And even though private equity drives Ancestry LLC, and decisions are made in a boardroom, those decisions are still being made by people – people not that different than you and I.

Thursday, March 31 – Front page story again – this time with the headline DNA firms concede limits to pinpointing ethnicity. The issue is that Asian-Americans and anyone with an Asian background isn’t getting as much bang for their buck (they quote $100) as those with European ancestry. I can’t argue with that. As someone who has spent over 30 years in the genealogy publishing industry, we’ve never had many resources for those with Asian ancestry. I started begging for writers to submit manuscripts decades ago – and got NONE. And we’re not talking a “minority” here either. The potential market is in the billions. I don’t have the answer. I just know that the Asian population has been under-served by the genealogy community since time immemorial – and not because we didn’t want to do provide product. In the case of DNA, databases and exacting ethnicity results for Asians will only be achieved as more folks with that ethnicity get tested. It’s a “chicken or the egg” kind of thing…