@BlinkyBill That is not what Fair Go advised I suggest you go back and watch it again! I have zero idea how you came up with that interpretation from the complete story about DNA kits

I found my unknown biological father using Ancestry DNA, I have helped many people connect with unknown bio family Fair Go even advised awesome for finding family!

Yes the T&C's are to make them money last time I checked they were not a charity

Worthless for health testing is what ' Fair Go ' advised Did anyone else watch it?

Linux:

 

@BlinkyBill That is not what Fair Go advised I suggest you go back and watch it again!

A typical Fair Go report.

Vague and unbalanced, with emphasis from a scare-mongerer.

Which NZ insurers are in cahoots with which DNA companies?? 

Which DNA companies are in cahoots with NZ law enforcement??

Which pharmaceutical companies have access to NZ DNA results??

No answers from Fair Go there.

And stuff all investigating.

Graymond:

 

Linux:

 

@BlinkyBill That is not what Fair Go advised I suggest you go back and watch it again!

 

Sorry edited my post above as you quoted me but clearly the OP watched 10 seconds of the show and only took one part out of the complete story!

@Kiwifidget and myself are active in a DNA Facebook group helping Kiwis understand DNA and helping them find the missing family link

I went thru intermediate and college in the 80s / early 90s with my half sister and we had zero idea back then we were in fact siblings. I found my unknown bio father 2018

The health reports are a waste of time and money. Some major companies have withdrawn their health offering.

The ethnicity estimates are just estimates and they change over time as the reference panels get better data.

The matching of your DNA with other peoples DNA to find relatives, is extremely accurate.

Horses for courses as they say.

The title of this thread is misleading.

As above the ethnicity estimates do change as more people test and reporting changes but they are 100% not useless

I bet you would not say that that to families that have had loved ones murdered and the cold cases are now getting solved thanks to DNA, As I say got nothing to hide got nothing to worry about!

One of the key things to remember as well is that the testing done by the likes of Ancestry is only a small part of your DNA - matching many things such as potential health risks is simply not possible.

sbiddle:

One of the key things to remember as well is that the testing done by the likes of Ancestry is only a small part of your DNA - matching many things such as potential health risks is simply not possible.

Linux:

 

I went thru intermediate and college in the 80s / early 90s with my half sister and we had zero idea back then we were in fact siblings. I found my unknown bio father 2018

 

It could have been ‘interesting’ or potentially dangerous if you had been attracted to each other, started dating, fell in love and so on. (Not funny and not meant to be a joke).

kiwifidget:

 

A typical Fair Go report.

 

Vague and unbalanced, with emphasis from a scare-mongerer.

 

Which NZ insurers are in cahoots with which DNA companies?? 

 

Which DNA companies are in cahoots with NZ law enforcement??

 

Which pharmaceutical companies have access to NZ DNA results??

 

No answers from Fair Go there.

 

And stuff all investigating.

 

Yes, since the departure of Philip Alpers Fair Go has turned from something useful into yet another clickbait TV program.

I saw the program. Yes, DNA is useful for finding biological relatives, assuming those relatives have also had DNA tests from the same company.

The ancestry profile (20% Scandinavian, etc) is pretty much worthless, depending entirely on what markers the company uses, and how good their reference database is. But I never saw much value in that anyway... just a bit of personal trivia. What does 20% Scandinavian mean in real life? Tall, blonde, blue-eyed, fair skin (all of which you can observe), unless you've inherited hair, skin, eye colour & height from your 15% Polynesian ancestors.

The health side of things sounded very dubious, and *might* lead to people deciding e.g. that their cancer risk was high enough to warrant surgical removal of healthy organs.

I don't recall any mention of DNA companies being in cahoots with any NZ entities. Given the dubious health value of these DNA results, I doubt they would be useful to a pharmaceutical or insurance company, although the actual samples or raw data might be. But I expect they would be selling your information to multi-national insurance companies (because, why not?), and those companies could provide the information to NZ subsidiaries. And why wouldn't NZ Police buy data from them? It would be a very cost-effective way of solving crimes where they had some DNA of the perpetrator. I doubt Pfizer or J&J would tell you whether they buy DNA data, or from whom.

Do any NZ insurance companies require you to disclose results of a DNA test, on pain of your policy being invalidated? If you've had a DNA test, that could be a nasty surprise when you came to make a claim.

frankv:

 

…

 

Do any NZ insurance companies require you to disclose results of a DNA test, on pain of your policy being invalidated? If you've had a DNA test, that could be a nasty surprise when you came to make a claim.

 

 

 

Medical and life insurance companies do indeed ask you disclose any DNA test results that you have received that might factor into your insurability or future claim. When I was looking for a better deal from Southern Cross two years ago, for my staff, they mentioned the need for disclosure and I specifically asked about 23andme DNA tests and the answer was, “if something comes up, you need to disclose it”.

frankv:

 

Yes, since the departure of Philip Alpers Fair Go has turned from something useful into yet another clickbait TV program.

 

I watched it for the first time in years last week.  Was about Ford's hand-grenade wet clutch DCT transmissions.  It went into enough detail about the cause of the issue (plastic used to retain the clutch plates breaking down, pieces getting sucked through the transmission destroying it), the cost of the fix ($12k), showed several cases where customers had been burned by transmissions failing and Ford NZ gave them the runaround, interviewed a transmission specialist who showed an example of how the parts failed and gave a good explanation of how the plastic went brittle after exposure to the transmission oil and that it was a design failure which would inevitably lead to premature transmission failure.  Ford NZ declined to front up, probably on advice of their lawyers and "Crisis Management" teams.

I thought it (that episode) was balanced, fair, and as thorough as it could have been.

Under pressure from regulatory authorities and class action lawsuits, these global corporations do end up having to negotiate settlements overseas.  In NZ however, a few consumers end up getting compensation through CGA / small claims, a few might be able to negotiate settlement directly, many probably just end up sucking the loss.

The motoring press in NZ doesn't want to get involved, their "journalists" are compromised by the system where if they fail to wax lyrical about the new model they get a special invite to preview, they don't get invited in future, so that's the end of the career as an advertorial shill for their true masters.

NZ's small population and legal system doesn't work well for class action lawsuits, small claims / CGA claims have $$$ limits and settlements can't be used for legal precedent, as an individual  suing a global corporation is to gamble with bankruptcy, regulatory authorities only seem to kick into action where safety is an issue.

The Dog and Lemon guide / Clive Matthew-Wilson gets a lot of hate, usually from owners of some awful ticking time-bomb that's their "pride and joy", but probably also from industry shills.  The D&L guide is the person on Facebook who makes the honest comment that your cat is ugly or that drinking potentiated alkali water probably didn't cure your warts.

Fair Go and Consumer can only pick a few examples to highlight.  If they do encourage consumers to be a little bit less trusting and a bit more thorough before making purchasing decisions, that's a good thing.

frankv:

The health side of things sounded very dubious, and *might* lead to people deciding e.g. that their cancer risk was high enough to warrant surgical removal of healthy organs.

BlinkyBill:

Medical and life insurance companies do indeed ask you disclose any DNA test results that you have received that might factor into your insurability or future claim.