This week only: MyHeritage new transfers advanced tools free forever

Be in quick.
For this week only, Dec 11th to 18th 2019

The free transfer of your DNA from other companies into MyHeritage usually has a $29US one off cost per kit to unlock the more advanced, and very useful, additional tools available.

The basic free set provides your match list, ability to contact your matches and any shared surnames between your trees.

The advanced tools include:
Chromosome Browser
Shared matches
Viewing family trees and pedigree charts of your DNA matches
Auto Clusters
Theory of Family Relativity

All of the above bring in the value of the science of the DNA and allow you to be much more certain of where a new match might "fit" on your pedigree, which for smaller matches in particular may not be where the hints from trees tell you.

Read more at the MyHeritage blog:

https://blog.myheritage.com/2019/12/this-week-only-dna-uploads-are-completely-free-forever-including-all-advanced-dna-features/

Then you can have fun putting all this newfound knowledge to use painting your chromosomes to show you where you really got each bit of your DNA from (DNAPainter.com)

If you don't know how to transfer your file from the other companies, don't panic. When you select Upload your DNA at MyHeritage there are fully instructions available.

GEDMatch LEM. changes to opt-out default

And the LawEnforcement Matching (LEM) fallout continues.
Here are two of the more balanced and explanatory posts on the topic.

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2019/05/19/gedmatch-reverses-course/

https://dna-explained.com/2019/05/19/gedmatch-implements-required-opt-in-for-law-enforcement-matching/

Your data on GEDMatch is now opted out of LEM by default.

NB WikiTree links from GEDMatch may also have been changed as part of this update.
Seems to be those that were set to Enable even if alias have now been set to Disabled. 

More on LEM (Law Enforcement matching)

Some more thoughtful thoughts on Law Enforcement matching using the databases of those who tested their DNA for genealogy:
From  Maurice Gleeson
https://dnaandfamilytreeresearch.blogspot.com/2019/05/civil-liberties-vs-greater-good.html

FTDNA Terms of use changes

I feel obliged to bring this Terms of use change at FTDNA to your attention as, disappointingly, it happened without any notification to customers.

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2019/02/01/opening-the-dna-floodgates/

There will be a lot of reactions, informed and un-informed, on the various boards.
Read and weigh in with your comments there.

All DNA testing exposes us to matches to "cousins" who have submitted their DNA.
"Cousins" come in many flavours: genealogists looking for validations of their family tree, people looking for their birth parents/medical history, and more recently we've begun reading about cold case Joe and Jane DOEs.

Those on our match lists have to have come from a submitted DNA Sample.
You see what they see.

I will add that none of this is easy.
It takes a lot of work to get from a match to a defined place in a previously unknown family.
We all may learn things we did not expect.

If I manage a kit for you and you have concerns, do contact me to discuss.

The actual  FTDNA Press release