MyHeritage reaffirms commitment to not license or sell genetic data to third parties

MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) has announced an update to its privacy policy for users, strengthening its protections over the ownership of genetic data. The following is the announcement just issued by email:

Earlier this year, prior to MyHeritage’s acquisition by leading private equity firm Francisco Partners, we issued a press release in which we promised to expand MyHeritage's strong privacy framework for the benefit of our users.

The current updates to our Privacy Policy fulfill this promise. The highlight of the updates is the unequivocal commitment not to license or sell genetic data to any third party. This is highly unique among the larger genealogy and consumer DNA industry and is a testament to the commitment that both MyHeritage and Francisco Partners share to privacy and consumers. 

The updated privacy policy is available to read at https://www.myheritage.com/privacy-policy, and states its key privacy principles as follows:

Our Key Privacy Principles

MyHeritage was founded in 2003 and has enjoyed the trust of its users for 18 years. MyHeritage cares deeply about the privacy of its users and the privacy of their data and its top priority is to honor their trust.

MyHeritage has never sold or licensed personal data (like customer names, email addresses, residence addresses and family trees) and will never do so in the future.

MYHERITAGE HAS NEVER SOLD OR LICENSED GENETIC DATA OR HEALTH DATA, AND WILL NEVER DO SO IN THE FUTURE.

MyHeritage will never provide data to insurance companies under any circumstances. MyHeritage prohibits law enforcement use of its DNA Services.

Users can delete their data from MyHeritage at any time. Deletion is permanent and irreversible.

If anything material ever changes in this privacy policy, we will notify you by email.

(With thanks to MyHeritage via email)

Chris

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