Genetic Affairs banned from accessing Ancestry data

[dicko99]

I don't know how many of you use the Genetic Affairs site to produce clusters but it seems you won't be doing it using Ancestry data any more... https://geneticaffairs.com/ancestry.html

Seems a bit short-sighted of Ancestry when they don't really offer a comparable tool.

R.

[davidft]

Be interesting to get Ancestry's take on this ……..

[Kimbrey]

Be interesting to get Ancestry's take on this …

Possibly money

FTDNA & My Heritage still OK though!

Kim

[Crumblie]

It may have some thing to do with law enforcement agencies trying to find suspects using DNA and genealogy sites. There is some dispute about whether members of the various sites have given their agreement to their DNA being used in such a manner. I am not saying that is what has happened but it is a possible reason.

[dicko99]

So here's the answer that someone else got: (as seen on the GA Facebook page)

By giving your Ancestry password to another company, you are allowing that company to access Ancestry systems. That company may not be following our Privacy Statement, Terms and Conditions or Community Rules and may be engaging in improper or even illegal behavior.

Third party DNA matching services are not affiliated with Ancestry. Some of these companies encouraged Ancestry customers to provide their Ancestry login credentials to them (which violates Ancestry’s Terms and Community Rules). They then use those login credentials to access Ancestry’s site and download information, in violation of Ancestry’s terms. This was negatively impacting Ancestry’s site, causing it to operate more slowly and to hang or crash. You may have experienced that. In addition, for privacy reasons, Ancestry does not allow downloading of genetic match data because it includes information on other Ancestry users. Ancestry customers should access and work with their Ancestry DNA matches on the Ancestry site.

[melba_schmelba]

And I never even got around to using it . I think someone mentioned a more 'manual' way of doing this, using another tool, or set of tools and spreadsheets, but that actually works out better than what GA was capable of, can anyone remind me of this technique?

[melba_schmelba]

And I never even got around to using it . I think someone mentioned a more 'manual' way of doing this, using another tool, or set of tools and spreadsheets, but that actually works out better than what GA was capable of, can anyone remind me of this technique?

Found it, I think it was squawki11 who recommended them to me a while ago, it is the Shared Clustering and DNAGedcom programmes that are alternatives
https://www.dnagedcom.com/
https://blog.genomelink.io/posts/dnagedcom-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it

https://github.com/jonathanbrecher/sharedclustering/wiki
https://segmentology.org/2019/11/29/shared-clustering-a-great-tool/

A suggestion - for Clustering use DNAGedcom or Shared Clustering. MH Clusters are a waste of time imo due to their restrictive input. Either of the above will give you a better start with looking at clusters. They are not a magic bullet. Shared Clustering has extensive help files on GitHub from where Jonathan Brecher's program can be downloaded. Both DNAGedcom and SC have Facebook groups. DNA Gedcom can use match/icw info from most sources whereas SC is restricted to Ancestry. As ever the more extensive your tree the more useful you will find clustering. As you work through/contact your shared matches it would be a good idea to invite those unlinked to link, please!

[Pheno]

But presumably these wont be able to use Ancestry either if it requires tree owners to give password data.  This seems to be the crux of the matter.

Pheno

[melba_schmelba]

But presumably these wont be able to use Ancestry either if it requires tree owners to give password data.  This seems to be the crux of the matter.

Pheno

I am not sure they can tell as they just access from your own ip address and probably spoof a browser, whereas, genetic affairs always accessed from the same ip. Also with SC, you are not giving your password data to anyone (other than the way you would put your username and password into a browser).

EDIT: downloading is currently not possible with SC, but that is apparently to do with the fact Ancestry changed their website in May, hopefully the program maker will update it to be compatible.