All About Ancestors Privacy Policy

This Privacy Notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information.

Privacy Policy

What information we collect, use, and why

We collect or use the following information to provide and improve products and services for clients:

Names and contact details
Addresses
Gender
Date of birth
Third-party information (such as family members or other relevant parties)

For DNA clients, we also collect or use the following special category information to provide and improve products and services for clients. This information is subject to additional protection due to its sensitive nature:

Genetic information

We collect or use the following personal information for research or archiving purposes:

Names and contact details
Addresses

For DNA clients, we also collect or use the following special category information for research or archiving purposes. This information is subject to additional protection due to its sensitive nature:

Genetic information

Lawful bases and data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, we must have a “lawful basis” for collecting and using your personal information. There is a list of possible lawful bases in the UK GDPR. You can find out more about lawful bases on the ICO’s website. Which lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights which are set out in brief below. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the ICO’s website:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. You can request other information such as details about where we get personal information from and who we share personal information with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to limit how we can use your personal information.
Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you.
Your right to withdraw consent – When we use consent as our lawful basis you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month. To make a data protection rights request, please contact us using the contact form on our website.

Our lawful bases for the collection and use of your data

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information to provide and improve products and services for clients are:

Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for research or archiving purposes:
Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.

Where we get personal information from

Directly from you

How long we keep information

5 years: for more information on how long we store your personal information or the criteria we use to determine this please contact us using the details provided above.

Who we share information with Others we share personal information with

Third parties:

Ancestry, and for DNA clients, AncestryDNA, GEDMatch, MyLivingDNA, FamilyTree DNA, MyHeritageDNA

Sharing information outside the UK

Where necessary, we may transfer personal information outside of the UK. When doing so, we comply with the UK GDPR, making sure appropriate safeguards are in place.

For further information or to obtain a copy of the appropriate safeguard for any of the transfers below, please contact us using the contact form on our website.

Organisation name: AncestryDNA, GEDMatch, MyLivingDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritageDNA

Category of recipient: DNA genealogy testing and comparison websites

Country the personal information is sent to: USA, Israel.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, you can make a complaint to us using the contact form on the website.

If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your data after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

Website: https://www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Last updated: 3 October 2025