New: Sharing DNA Results with a Collaborator

The genetic genealogy community is one of collaboration; many people seek advice and guidance from others when they receive their DNA Matches, and there are plenty of experts, including search angels, who are willing to help. For individuals looking to solve a specific genetic genealogy mystery, for example, finding their biological parents or other long-lost family members, enlisting someone else’s help can often be the missing piece that leads to a research breakthrough. At MyHeritage, we value this collaborative spirit, and wish to facilitate it, while maintaining our commitment to information security. Today we are pleased to announce that we’ve added the option to securely share DNA results with another collaborator on MyHeritage.

In the past, some users committed the bad practice of sharing their account passwords with such experts. This is prohibited on MyHeritage and violates our Terms of Service. Users must never give another person their password, as it poses significant security risks. Following a rise in security threats across the industry, we recently made Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) mandatory for viewing DNA results on MyHeritage. The introduction of mandatory Two-Factor Authentication made it much more difficult for people to share passwords with others in order to view DNA results – which is good news.

In response to many requests from the community, we’ve now added the ability to securely share DNA results with another collaborator on MyHeritage. This allows a MyHeritage user to invite someone else, usually a DNA expert, to view their DNA results and become a member of the family site on MyHeritage, which also gives the collaborator access to the user’s family tree.

Who can collaborate on DNA results

If you have DNA Matches, but feel you need assistance from someone you know and trust who has the expertise to interpret them effectively, the new sharing option may be the solution for you. Anyone you wish to share the results with must already be registered on MyHeritage. If you manage multiple DNA kits on MyHeritage, you can share the results separately for each kit that you manage. Anyone you share the results with will be required to have Two-Factor Authentication enabled on their own MyHeritage account. DNA results belonging to minors cannot be shared with another user, and minors cannot be added as collaborators for someone else’s DNA results.

How to share DNA results

To share your own DNA results, or the results of another kit that you manage, with a collaborator, select “Manage DNA kits” from the DNA tab on the main navigation bar.

Accessing “Manage DNA kits” from the main menu (click to zoom)

Click the three-dots icon next to the DNA kit whose results you want to share, to access the DNA kit options.

Accessing DNA kit options (click to zoom)

From the drop-down menu of options, click “Share DNA results with a collaborator.”

Sharing DNA results with a collaborator (click to zoom)

A popup will open where you should enter the email address of the person with whom you want to share the DNA kit. As mentioned previously, this individual must be a registered user of MyHeritage. To see the full list of what this person can and cannot do once the kit is shared, click “Show more” on the popup, or refer to the section below about “Collaborator permissions.”

Sharing DNA results with a collaborator (click to zoom)

Sharing DNA results is secure and by invitation only, and the collaborator you invite can choose whether to accept or decline the invitation. Once you click “Share,” the collaborator will receive an email invitation from MyHeritage, and you will be notified if they accepted or declined the invitation. You can track the status of the invitation from the “Manage DNA kits” page. If the invitation is still pending, an orange arrow will appear next to the kit number. Once the invitation has been accepted, the arrow will appear in green. You can hover over the arrow to see the name of the collaborator with whom you shared the kit’s results.

A green arrow indicates DNA results that you shared with someone else (click to zoom)

Collaborator permissions

When you share the results of a DNA kit with a collaborator, they also become a member of your family site. This enables the collaborator to see your family tree, and even add new individuals to the family tree as they progress with the research. We recommend that you let them know if you would like them to do this, or if you want them to focus only on interpreting the DNA results. If you’ve set your tree settings so that only you or your site managers can edit the tree, the collaborator will not be able to edit the tree.

Below is the invitation that the potential collaborator will receive when you choose to share DNA results with them:

Collaborators can choose whether to accept or decline an invitation to view another user’s DNA results (click to zoom)

If the collaborator accepts the invitation, they will be able to view DNA Matches, the Ethnicity Estimate, and Genetic Groups for the kit you shared. Depending on your current tree settings, they will be able to edit your family tree (or only view it). They will also be able to contact your DNA Matches. When contacting your DNA Matches, they will do so as themselves, not under your name.

The collaborator will not be able to download raw DNA data, delete the DNA kit, share the DNA results with others, re-assign the kit to a different person, or change DNA preferences.

You can manage the sharing for each kit, and can remove the collaborator’s access privileges at any time. Currently, it is not possible to share DNA results with more than one collaborator. So, if you share the results with one collaborator and then want to share them with another, let the first one work on the kit for a period of time, and then remove their access and invite someone else. To do this, visit the “Manage DNA kits” page and click the three-dots icon next to the person with whom you’ve shared the kit. Select “Remove results sharing.” This will remove their access. Once that’s done, you can then proceed to invite another collaborator to view your results.

Manage DNA kits — removing results sharing (click to zoom)

Viewing shared DNA results as a collaborator

When you collaborate on another user’s DNA results, the DNA kit(s) shared with you are listed in the DNA kit selector drop-down (marked below in red).  A label appears below the name of the person tested for each shared kit, to remind you that these are DNA results that were shared with you.

Indication that DNA results were shared with you (click to zoom)

In addition, DNA kits that were shared with you will appear at the bottom of the list on the Manage DNA kits page:

If a user shares DNA results with you and, after accepting the invitation, you decide you no longer want to access their results, you can click the three-dots icon and select “Remove shared kit.” This will not delete the DNA kit; it will simply be removed from the list of kits you can access.

Manage DNA kits — removing a DNA kit that was shared with you (click to zoom)

Summary

Sharing DNA results with a collaborator allows MyHeritage users to enlist the help of an expert, safely and securely. We hope this new feature helps the genetic genealogy community continue to enjoy MyHeritage DNA and refer to it as their favorite service for solving genealogical mysteries with DNA.