A proposed class of Illinois residents is suing Ancestry.com for allegedly disclosing their genetic information to Blackstone without consent during the acquisition process last year.
A.K., a minor through his guardian Kelsi Kingsley, filed the class action complaint on Oct. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Ancestry.com DNA, LLC, alleging violation of the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA).
The lawsuit was filed through attorney Eugene Turin of McGuire Law PC in Chicago. The plaintiffs are represented locally by Gregory Shevlin of Cook Bartholomew Shevlin Cook & Jones LLP in Belleville. They are also represented by Freed Kanner London & Millen LLC, Mason Lietz & Klinger LLP and Lynch Carpenter LLP.
Shevlin previously filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in July against Ancestry.com for plaintiff Carolyn Bridges. Shevlin named Danny Collins of Cook County as a second plaintiff in Bridges’ suit and sought to certify the case as a statewide class action.
The plaintiffs in Kingsley's suit also seek to certify the case as a class action for “all Illinois residents whose genetic information was disclosed and/or released by Ancestry.com to Blackstone, according to Ancestry.com’s records.”
Turin wrote that federal court jurisdiction is proper, because the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million and there are more than 100 putative class members.
“This case concerns the illegal disclosure of thousands if not millions of individuals’ genetic information to Blackstone, Inc., a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm that acquired defendant Ancestry.com, a genetic testing company, in late 2020,” the suit states.
The plaintiff alleges Ancestry.com violated the class members’ rights under GIPA to prevent disclosing their genetic information to unauthorized third-parties without their consent. GIPA mandates that the defendant may not release genetic testing information to anyone other than the individual tested or to people specifically authorized in writing.
“Compliance with GIPA is straightforward and may be accomplished through a single, signed sheet of paper or its electronic equivalent,” the suit states. “GIPA’s requirements bestow a right to privacy in one’s genetic information and a right to prevent the disclosure of such information without their consent.”
Kingsley claims A.K. used an at-home DNA test kit from Ancestry.com. A.K. and his guardian then received genetic information derived from the test. The plaintiffs claim they would have never agreed to provide A.K.’s genetic material to Ancestry.com if they had known the information would be disclosed without their consent to a third party.
“Due to the highly sensitive nature of genetic test results as well as Ancestry.com’s representations regarding maintaining the strict privacy of its customers’ genetic information, plaintiff and his guardian reasonably believed that the only persons who would be provided the results of plaintiff’s genetic testing would be himself and his family and that the information submitted on his behalf to Ancestry.com would be kept confidential, private and secure - and that it would never be received by third parties like Blackstone without his or his mother’s written consent,” the suit states.
According to the complaint, Ancestry.com provides genetic testing services, offering customers the ability to research family and genetic histories through family trees, historical records and genetic information. The defendant uses DNA collected from customers’ saliva to provide them information about their heritage and health characteristics.
Blackstone announced an agreement to acquire Ancestry.com on Aug. 5, 2020, for $4.7 billion. Blackstone reported that the acquisition was fully completed on Dec. 4, 2020.
Ancestry.com allegedly disclosed on its website that class members’ genetic information would be released to Blackstone but failed to offer any method for customers to prevent the disclosure of their genetic information.
“Under GIPA, the results of a DNA or genetic test are confidential and the subject of such testing has a right to prevent others from receiving their genetic test results without written consent,” the suit states.
The plaintiffs seek an order declaring the defendant’s actions as violating GIPA, an injunction requiring the defendant to comply with GIPA, statutory damages of $15,000 for each willful or reckless violation of GIPA, statutory damages of $2,500 for each negligent violation of GIPA, or actual damages - whichever is greater - attorney’s fees, court costs, interest and all other relief the court deems just.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-cv-1368