Our guidelines for what is on-topic say:

Please note: You must not include here in any circumstances information (including name, date and place of birth or any other details) that would allow identification of any living (or possibly) living individual by somebody reading this site. In practice, this means details about anyone born in the last 100 years, whether they are believed to be deceased or not, and whether or not they have given their permission.

The current popularity of DNA research for genealogy, particularly in identifying the bio-parents of adoptees, makes it seem likely that we will get many questions like this:

• Trying to find father using AncestryDNA?

Obviously with adoptees trying to identify a bio-parent, there is no way for them to know whether the parent(s) are deceased, no matter what privacy rule we designate.

I find the whole issue of adoptees using DNA to find bio-family troubling. Sites which are set up for birth parents and adoptees to find each other again are by nature an "opt-in" scenario -- if you don't want to be found, you don't join those sites. But with DNA, anyone who does a test for their own genealogical purposes gets their DNA tossed into the database with all the adoptees -- there may be some "opt-out" provisions, but using features like privatizing a DNA kit or not seeing close matches aren't ideal -- they may hinder people from doing their own genealogical research.

One possible solution to the problem with the current question about Ancestry DNA might be to edit the question to ask about using the data to ID a more distant relative. The mechanism for how you rule out one line would still be the same.

Are we happy with what we've talked about already? Is it time for a review?

Previous discussions are at:

• Seeking possibly-living individuals - clarity required
• Why must we be careful in referring to living people?
• Should we reduce the 100 year privacy rule to something a bit more flexible?
• What level of personal information are we happy to publish in DNA questions?
• Appropriateness or Level of detail on DNA Genealogy Questions?
• How do we judge that a question might be identifying living individuals?
• How should questions about potentially living people be handled?

Our guidelines for what is on-topic say:

Please note: You must not include here in any circumstances information (including name, date and place of birth or any other details) that would allow identification of any living (or possibly) living individual by somebody reading this site. In practice, this means details about anyone born in the last 100 years, whether they are believed to be deceased or not, and whether or not they have given their permission.

The current popularity of DNA research for genealogy, particularly in identifying the bio-parents of adoptees, makes it seem likely that we will get many questions like these:

• Trying to find father using AncestryDNA?
• https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/14243

Obviously with adoptees trying to identify a bio-parent, there is no way for them to know whether the parent(s) are deceased, no matter what privacy rule we designate.

I find the whole issue of adoptees using DNA to find bio-family troubling. Sites which are set up for birth parents and adoptees to find each other again are by nature an "opt-in" scenario -- if you don't want to be found, you don't join those sites. But with DNA, anyone who does a test for their own genealogical purposes gets their DNA tossed into the database with all the adoptees -- there may be some "opt-out" provisions, but using features like privatizing a DNA kit or not seeing close matches aren't ideal -- they may hinder people from doing their own genealogical research.

One possible solution to the problem with the current question about Ancestry DNA might be to edit the question to ask about using the data to ID a more distant relative. The mechanism for how you rule out one line would still be the same.

Are we happy with what we've talked about already? Is it time for a review?

Previous discussions are at:

• Seeking possibly-living individuals - clarity required
• Why must we be careful in referring to living people?
• Should we reduce the 100 year privacy rule to something a bit more flexible?
• What level of personal information are we happy to publish in DNA questions?
• Appropriateness or Level of detail on DNA Genealogy Questions?
• How do we judge that a question might be identifying living individuals?
• How should questions about potentially living people be handled?