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Let's face it: the DNA kit purchases are merely a come-on, to entice you to subscribe to their full-access services. You didn't really think that a one-time fee

Let's face it: the DNA kit purchases are merely a come-on, to entice you to subscribe to their full-access services. You didn't really think that a one-time fee would afford you all sorts of features in perpetuity?

vintermann 3y ago
When you give them your DNA, you help build their network effects monopoly. As a genealogist, I would like (or rather, would have liked) to figure out certain things about my ancestry. It may be a man who married several times, and his children are known, but not which came from which wife - this is very common. Or it may be someone who suddenly appears in a place with no obvious relatives around - where did she come from? DNA can help solve such problems, but you need common descendants. As many as possible. Direct male and female lines are especially valuable. Take the last case, the woman appearing out of nowhere. If you can find a direct female descendant of her, and you find someone who isn't, but has sufficiently similar mitochondrial DNA - they may be a direct female descendant of her sister. Genealogists use tricks like these to find connections that would otherwise be impossible to find from the documentary record. But for it to work, you need a big database of people who have submitted their DNA. And they're currently all owned by sleazy and exploitative multinational companies with cozy relationships with government agencies. These companies also exploit that much of their customer base is elderly (and so both have more money, and are easier to milk as they don't have the expectations of younger people that "giving them your information should be more than enough payment" - which is after all how all social media sites run)
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  >Or it may be someone who suddenly appears in a place with no obvious relatives around - where did she come from? Some type of alien intervention, or time travel, obviously.

vintermann 3y ago

When you give them your DNA, you help build their network effects monopoly. As a genealogist, I would like (or rather, would have liked) to figure out certain things about my ancestry. It may be a man who married several times, and his children are known, but not which came from which wife - this is very common. Or it may be someone who suddenly appears in a place with no obvious relatives around - where did she come from? DNA can help solve such problems, but you need common descendants. As many as possible. Direct male and female lines are especially valuable. Take the last case, the woman appearing out of nowhere. If you can find a direct female descendant of her, and you find someone who isn't, but has sufficiently similar mitochondrial DNA - they may be a direct female descendant of her sister. Genealogists use tricks like these to find connections that would otherwise be impossible to find from the documentary record. But for it to work, you need a big database of people who have submitted their DNA. And they're currently all owned by sleazy and exploitative multinational companies with cozy relationships with government agencies. These companies also exploit that much of their customer base is elderly (and so both have more money, and are easier to milk as they don't have the expectations of younger people that "giving them your information should be more than enough payment" - which is after all how all social media sites run)

shiroiuma 3y ago
>Or it may be someone who suddenly appears in a place with no obvious relatives around - where did she come from? Some type of alien intervention, or time travel, obviously.