Will this merger provide more data? Privacy concerns?

[Mark Monroe]

FTDNA has merged with Australian company.

https://apnews.com/press-release/pr-new ... kHTxotgjFU

[Webmaster]

Mark,

Wow! That is big news. I don't think it will have any privacy issues because FTDNA is already GDPR compliant, which I think Australia has to be too as a Commonwealth country; but I do wonder if they will continue to provide the public results. It would be disastrous if they locked all those away to only members. This has been a concern of mine for months. Let's hope it all stays status quo!

This quote stood out from the article:

Along the same line, Gene by Gene and FamilyTreeDNA will continue acting in the field of Genetic Genealogy, their original business, keeping intact their privacy rules and all terms of service.

What I am now wondering is if the original partnership with Nebula Genomics, which provides a similar service as myDNA, fell through and FTDNA looked to myDNA. The key service that FTDNA is missing is WGS testing, which myDNA must do in order to provide the health related services. So this may FTDNA's vehicle into WGS testing, although I don't see anything on the myDNA website about the actual testing.

[Mark Monroe]

I hope this merger helps build the R1b-DF104 clade / Haplogroup database. The myDNA website does not indicate any genetic genealogy but they probably have a deep data pile to rummage through.