Just FYI, adopted people aren't ignorant of the potential privacy and security risks of consumer DNA testing. But when the state denies you information about birth family, there's sometimes no other way. Without DNA testing, some people will die without knowing who they are.

Imagine petitioning the state for your birth certificate, the real one that contains names of the actual people who conceived you, and being told that your interest in this information is not sufficient cause for the state to release it to you.

Instead of just releasing your own information to you, the state instructs you pay an intermediary person who is authorized to review your sealed files but also prohibited from telling you what those files contain. And now imagine that you have to pay $900 for this.

As no one will give you your own information, how will you find people you're related to? You might resort to DNA testing so you can at least feel what it's like to know you're biologically related to someone else on the planet.

I know adopted people who have searched for their lost families for 20, 30, 40, 50+ years. By design, closed adoption policies make it exceedingly burdensome for adopted people to find their families. We were never supposed to be able to find them again.

It's not actually weird to want to know who shares your DNA, even if you've never met them. I understand that this is called genealogy and is a delightful hobby for millions of people.

So miss me with takes about how people don't understand the risks of consumer DNA. Some people understand this risks and proceed anyway because they can't get information any other way.