I understand your apprehension, but that is why I would only recommend 23andMe for something like this that is open to the general public for use. 23andMe is a CAP/CLIA certified lab where your identifying information is concealed and you essential become a unique random key number and your identifying information is protected by federal law. Ancestry does not list themselves as a CAP/CLIA accredited lab, so I am wary of what they have to offer. CAP/CLIA certified labs have to go through very extensive certification processes that guarantee HIPPA compliance and data integrity, so their butt is on the line if they make a mistake. By becoming a 23andMe customer, you are also adding your genetic information to a growing database of genomic markers that researchers like me can use to query for associations of genotypic markers to many different kinds of diseases. This is very important for genetic research because unlike genetically identical mice, we cannot control human behavior. As a result, we can't just take a handful of people, look at their DNA, and then definitively say that a mutation in gene X or geneY or geneZ will cause cancer or heart disease. Instead, we need orders of magnitude greater sample sizes in order to be able to make any kind of statement regarding associations to complex diseases. Sometimes we get lucky or things are pretty simple in the case of mendelian diseases, but for complex diseases such as cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, IBD, etc, we need all the help we can get.
Just to make clear, I do not work for 23andMe. I work for a CAP/CLIA accredited lab at major research university and have used the very same technology that 23andMe uses on a day to day basis for research and clinical applications. In fact, I have personally analyzed the DNA or RNA for nearly 100,000 patients (if not more....I honestly don't even track it anymore), and even with all that data, it still is not enough for cracking something like cancer. We have a hard enough time just trying to crack the genetic profile of a single tumor let alone multiple tumors of metastatic cancer from the same person. But now that genomic data is becoming more ubiquitous, we can now start digging deeper, make more discoveries, and hopefully come up with new targets and treatments. So if something like this remotely interests you, please go with 23andMe.
