Questions to Ask Yourself Before DNA Testing

Most DNA testing advice is structured as a checklist: do this, then this, then this. The checklist is useful, and we wrote ours at DNA testing privacy checklist. This piece is meant to do the other thing, which is help you think before you tick boxes.

The questions below are not about whether you have technically configured your account correctly. They are about whether testing is the right move for you, given who you are and what you are trying to find out. There is no right answer to any of them. There are only answers that match your situation or do not.

1. Why are you testing? Specifically.

“Curiosity” is fine but vague. Concrete reasons land in different places.

• “I want to know my ethnicity breakdown.” Any major ancestry test will do something for that, with the caveat that ethnicity estimates are approximations and vary across companies.
• “I am adopted and want to find biological family.” This is a different test. You want the largest matching database, which generally means AncestryDNA, and ideally uploading to MyHeritage and FTDNA as well to broaden coverage.
• “I want to learn about my health predispositions.” This is a third category, with different privacy implications and where we would specifically recommend talking to a genetic counselor before and after testing.
• “I want to do serious genealogy research.” Different optimization again; matching database matters, and so does tree-building tools.

Knowing the answer changes which test, which settings, and how much you should care about specific features.

2. What is your family situation?

Your DNA is partial information about your relatives. Testing has implications you may not have considered.

• Are there closed adoptions or undisclosed paternity in your family that could surface through matches?
• Are there family secrets that, if disclosed through DNA testing, could harm living people?
• Do you have relatives who have explicitly asked not to be searchable?
• Are your siblings, parents, or children aware that you are testing?

There is no rule that says you must inform your family before testing, but the question is worth sitting with. Match results can produce surprises, and surprises do not always feel welcome to everyone involved.

3. What privacy controls does this specific company offer?

The four major companies (AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA) differ meaningfully. Before buying:

• Is research sharing opt-in or opt-out?
• What is the default for sample retention?
• Is two-factor authentication available?
• What is the law enforcement policy? (See DNA testing and law enforcement.)
• What is the company’s recent stability and breach history?

Our DNA test privacy policies compared has the side-by-side.

4. Do you want health reports? If yes, are you prepared for what they say?

Health reports are different from ancestry. They can include carrier status, predisposition variants for certain conditions, and pharmacogenomic information.

Two questions follow.

First, do you want this information at all? Some people do; some people specifically prefer not to know. Both choices are legitimate.

Second, if you want it, do you have a plan for what to do with anything notable? “Notable” can mean a positive carrier status that affects family planning, a predisposition variant that warrants a conversation with a physician, or a result that contradicts what you thought you knew about your family history. A genetic counselor is the appropriate person to discuss findings with; the National Society of Genetic Counselors directory is at findageneticcounselor.nsgc.org.

The test result is the start of the conversation, not the conclusion.

5. Are you planning to apply for life, disability, or long-term care insurance soon?

GINA, the main US federal law against genetic discrimination, does not cover these three categories. (Health insurance and employment are covered; the others are not.) If you are planning to apply, completing the underwriting before testing avoids a disclosure question that the test could create.

This is not legal or insurance advice, and state laws vary; see genetic data and insurance, GINA explained for the framework, and talk to an insurance professional or attorney for your specific situation.

6. Do you want to be matchable to relatives?

This is the central feature of consumer DNA testing for many people, and the central concern for others. You can usually turn matching off, but it is on by default in most cases.

Sub-questions:

• Do you want to find biological relatives?
• Are you OK with relatives finding you?
• Are you OK with relatives of relatives finding you (more distant matches)?
• Do you want the option of opting into or out of law enforcement matching (relevant at FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch)?

If your answer to all four is yes, the defaults at most companies are fine. If your answer to any is no, the relevant setting is somewhere in your account preferences and worth checking before you swab.

7. What is your contingency if the company changes?

The 23andMe bankruptcy in 2025 and the Nebula Genomics shutdown earlier that year are reminders that consumer DNA companies are not stable infrastructure. They can be sold, can shut down, or can change policies. See what happens to DNA data if a company shuts down and 23andMe bankruptcy: what it means for your data.

The realistic contingency is straightforward: download your raw data after results arrive, store it in two places, and watch your email for service announcements. If you would not actually do that, you should know that going in.

8. Are you OK with the worst-case scenario becoming public knowledge?

The worst-case scenario, in our framing, is something like this: a future data breach exposes the fact that you tested with company X, plus some basic data about your results. Not nuclear, but not nothing.

If that scenario would cause real problems for you (sensitive employment, public-figure status, immigration concern), the marginal risk of testing is higher than for someone for whom it would be a minor inconvenience.

We are not telling you it will happen. We are telling you to imagine that it does and decide whether you would still be glad you tested.

9. Have you read the consent screens?

Specifically, the research-participation consent and the DNA Relatives or matching consent, which are usually separate from the basic terms of service. The basic terms of service you have probably accepted dozens of times for other products without reading; this is the moment to actually read.

You can decline research without losing access to your results.

10. Are you the right person in your family to test first?

This is not always the question people ask, but it is sometimes the right one. If your goal is genealogy research, the most informative tester is usually the oldest generation available, because they sit closer to the relatives you are trying to find. Testing your parents or grandparents (with their consent) often yields better results than testing yourself.

If you are testing yourself only because you are the one in the family who is most comfortable with the technology, the same considerations apply to whoever in your family actually has the most useful DNA for your goal.

After the questions

If you have worked through these and you still want to test, you are in better shape than most testers. Move on to our DNA testing privacy checklist for the actionable steps before and after you swab. For specific company comparisons, see DNA test privacy policies compared. For health-related questions, the NSGC directory is the standard starting point.

This piece is part of our Genetic Data Privacy guide.