Ancestry.com under fire as update to its database drastically changes the ethnicity of many users overnight
Ancestry.com is updating its databases and altering the results for some users
As more users join the service, accuracy increases, changing prior findings
This will be the second time in about a year that Ancestry has honed in results
Ongoing updates to popular genealogy company Ancestry.com have sent some users into a full-blown identity crisis. Ancestry.com is beginning to roll out changes to its users' ethnic backgrounds which will continue throughout the course of the next month, reported the Sydney Morning Herald. As a result, some patrons are seeing their prior genetic and ethnic histories undergo an entire transformation, leading users to somewhat jarring realizations.
'Did you know that Ancestry can change your results?' posted one angry patron on Twitter. 'Received an email to check updates now [that] DNA is improved. Instead of being 57 percent Scottish and Irish and 10 percent [English], and [the] rest Europe with a few others, I'm now 62 percent British and 28 percent Scottish/Irish/Wales. WTF!' Likewise, in a recent CNBC report, one writer saw a dramatic shift in her heritage, as it jumped from just 8 percent of her heritage originating from Great Britain to 71 percent.
According to the company, the changes are a result of two major factors impacting how Ancestry produces its reports, one of them being a new algorithm rolled out in 2018. 'With this new algorithm and a larger DNA reference panel, Ancestry can now break down geographic ethnicity estimates with more precision,' a representative told Dailymail.com in an email. The company said that lineage information has been changed since the update rolled out in 2018, but some users may have just noticed now after not checking their account for many months. 'To see their updated results customers must login to their AncestryDNA account, so if a customer hasn’t logged into their DNA account since September 2018 they won’t see the changes,' a representative added.
Ancestry says the other factor behind changes to users' background is an expanding database. With a larger sampling of genetic information and a clearer picture of family trees around the world, the company says it's able to hone the results of its genealogical tests further and further, resulting in greater accuracy. In a statement from September, the company said it now has the ability to reference 5 times as many samples compare to its last update. 'We added 13,000 more samples to our reference panel, which increases our ability to identify the genetic signature of a region within one’s DNA,' said an Ancestry spokesperson. Though the results for users have technically been 'improved,' the outcome doesn't always sit well for those who have placed stock in the company's original findings.
In September last year, the company underwent a similar update to its accuracy – a change that was met with similar feedback. Though disgruntled users on the receiving end of Ancestry's changes may disagree with the company's practices, the shift in some customers' results is a marker of success for the company and others like it. Both Ancestry and its similarly popular competitor, 23andMe, have exploded in popularity throughout the last several years giving rise of an unprecedented and growing catalog of genetic information.
In a study from the MIT Technology Review, an analysis found that a whopping 26 million people have taken an at-home ancestry test as of February this year. If that pace continues, says the report, in just two years, the database could total 100 million people from across the world. Ancestry is still leading the way among the two players with a reported 14 million kits sold as of November last year – the most recent numbers reported by the company. Aside from the recent swell of disgruntled users, genetic companies have also faced skepticism over what happens with their DNA results after they've been logged by the companies. n some cases genetic information is a valuable asset for ancestry companies, as made apparent through a recent $300 million between the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and 23andMe which will be used to study and develop new drugs. A a result, many companies - 23andMe included - have now introduced their own consent forms which allow users to opt-in and out of sharing their information.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6972711/Ancestry-com-fire-update-database-drastically-changes-ethnicity-users.html