[exact_string]

I assume this is yet another sequencing company outsourcing the actual sequencing?

>> Do you sell or share my data with anyone?

> No, we do not sell or share your data, including your DNA data, with anyone.

However, in their privacy policy:

> Your Personal Information may be shared in the following ways:

> With our service providers, allowing them to provide their services to us.

edit:

More clearly stated here:

https://sequencing.com/ordering-dna-test-kit-and-genome-sequ...

> When you purchase the Ultimate DNA Test or Ultimate Genome Sequencing test, your test will be processed by our Laboratory Partners. We will provide our Laboratory Partner with only your basic contact information so that it can send you a DNA collection kit; we will not share your billing information with our Laboratory Partner but will pass on your payments to them.

[FollowingTheDao]

> However, in their privacy policy:

That does not mean they are sharing your genetic data, maybe just address phone number etc.

I had the WORST experience with Nebula Genomics which ended up with them refunding my money after waiting 6 months.

I hope this is not another one of those companies. I still have some blank spots I am trying to understand from my 23andMe results and this would be great.

[adora]

I emailed Sequencing.com asking what the difference was between them and Nebula Genomics and this is what they wrote back:

(1) Nebula is our laboratory partner, and they sequence with high-throughput MGI DNBSEQ-T7 DNA sequencing machines.

(2) They are our laboratory provider, but the product is not the same! The whole genome sequencing product sold by Nebula on their site is different from the Ultimate Genome Sequencing service we offer in some key ways. One big one is that our service includes more than $200 in DNA analysis apps and reports (such as the Healthcare Pro report designed for healthcare providers and the Rare Disease Screen that analyzes thousands of rare diseases).

The biggest difference, however, is in the processing of the raw genetic data into data files that you can then use to get health insights. We have enhanced processing for these kits that is able to create insights not available from Nebula directly, including enhanced raw data processing through two special bioinformatics pipelines that provide comprehensive data and analysis of structural variations, copy number variations, and mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Both Telomere Length and HLA Typing are coming soon and will be retroactively added to all past purchases of our Ultimate Genome Sequencing service.

This is all fed into our One Genome technology, which allows you to do analysis in ways that you can't do anywhere else. This technology takes all of your genetic data and turns it into an enhanced virtual genome. This advantage of this is that you can run analysis on everything all at once, where in some other cases you might have separate files that can't be analyzed simultaneously.

The long and short of it is that it takes a lot of processing to turn raw genetic data into usable data, and then to analyze that data. That piece is where we come in, and are at the forefront of the field.

[exact_string]

...and seems that Nebula Genomics also outsources their sequencing:

> At its discretion, Nebula may use third-party laboratories to perform DNA extraction, sequencing, and data analysis.

(https://nebulagenomics.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600243...)

I would guess the samples are eventually sequenced by BGI although Nebula FAQ (https://nebula.org/faqs/) says they sequence in EU.

[FollowingTheDao]

Oh my...RUN FOR THE HILLS! Seriously, search for the complaints about them on Twitter.

Thank you so much for revealing this to everyone.

[jker]

I was scared off from using Nebula when they claimed to secure my data privacy by using a blockchain.

[sauwan]

What happened with Nebula? I have been genuinely considering trying out that service and this is the first negative thing I've seen about it.

[FollowingTheDao]

It is hard, but if you search you will find countless stories like this:

https://twitter.com/TrentBrown/status/1434246929035055105

[ampdepolymerase]

Note FDA rules require them to retain the data for a few years.

[Teever]

Any idea what the reasoning behind these FDA rules is?

[nibbleshifter]

European here: I can't wait to use my gdpr superpowers to cause an expectation violation there.

[marcosdumay]

Doesn't the GDPR have an exception for data required for legal reasons?

Anyway, an US lab won't care about it.

[nibbleshifter]

It has some cut outs, but not as many as you would think.

The US lab is marketing to EU customers. They will care about GDPR (heck, they even claim to be compliant on their website).