My DNA Lab helps customers access specialist tests carried out by partner laboratories. This policy explains the information we handle when you use our website, contact us or order a test. It also explains how information moves between you, us and the laboratory, and the choices you have over your information.
This website is operated by MY DNA LAB LIMITED (company number 10503771). Our registered address is 18 St. George’s Street, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 2AA.
We are responsible for the personal information we use to operate the website, manage orders, arrange services and communicate with customers. If you have a question about this policy or wish to exercise a data protection right, please use our contact page, call 01257 249089, or write to us at the address above.
The laboratory carrying out a test also handles information for its own testing and reporting activities. If you would like details of a particular laboratory’s privacy practices, please contact us and we will provide the information available for that laboratory or help obtain an answer to your question.
The person placing an order is not always the person being tested. Depending on the test, an order may involve a partner, a child or more than one participant. We may therefore handle information about the purchaser and the people whose samples are required.
If you place an order for someone else, we may contact you to confirm that you have discussed the test with them and have their permission to provide the details needed for the order. The laboratory’s own consent requirements must also be completed before it can process a sample. Paying for a test does not, by itself, entitle someone to receive another person’s report.
The information we handle depends on the service you use. It may include:
We receive order information from the person placing the order. We may also receive information from the person being tested, a laboratory, a collection provider or another service provider involved in fulfilling the order.
Customers complete the laboratory’s remaining paperwork and provide their sample directly for laboratory processing. We do not see confidential information they add to the completed laboratory form or handle their sample. We do, however, receive the final report from the laboratory as described below.
After an order is placed, we use the details provided to arrange the appropriate test kit and, where applicable, partly complete the laboratory’s order form. The person being tested then completes the remaining sections, reads the laboratory’s terms and signs the required consent. The laboratory cannot process the test without that signed consent.
How the sample is collected depends on the test. Some samples can be collected at home, while a blood sample must be taken by an appropriate healthcare professional. We explain how to return the kit and, where collection is part of the service, help arrange it in line with the relevant laboratory’s process. The completed form and sample are then sent to the laboratory carrying out the test. We do not read confidential information added to the completed form or handle the sample.
Once testing is complete, the laboratory sends the report to us. We review its main findings so that we can provide a basic overview, then email the report to the person authorised to receive it under the arrangements for that test.
We use personal information to answer enquiries, process orders and payments, arrange kits and collections, deliver reports, provide customer support, maintain appropriate business records and protect our services. The UK GDPR requires a lawful basis for each of these activities.
| Purpose | Article 6 lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to an enquiry or taking steps towards an order | Taking steps at your request before a contract, or our legitimate interest in responding to general enquiries. |
| Processing a purchaser’s order, payment, kit delivery and collection arrangements | Performance of our contract with the purchaser. |
| Handling limited details about a participant when someone else places the order | Our legitimate interest in administering the requested order and checking that the appropriate permissions are in place. |
| Receiving, briefly reviewing and delivering a report | Performance of our contract where the participant is the purchaser, or the participant’s consent where someone else placed the order. |
| Keeping financial records required for tax and accounting | Compliance with a legal obligation. |
| Protecting the website, addressing misuse and handling disputes | Our legitimate interests in protecting our business and customers, or compliance with a legal obligation where applicable. |
| Sending marketing that you have chosen to receive | Your consent. |
Genetic and health information requires an additional condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR. For our receipt, limited review and delivery of a report containing this information, we rely on the participant’s explicit consent under Article 9(2)(a), given through the applicable test consent and report delivery arrangements. The laboratory has its own responsibilities for the information it collects to analyse the sample and produce the report.
Marketing consent is separate from ordering a test. You can withdraw it or unsubscribe at any time. We do not use the contents of laboratory reports for marketing.
We share information where needed to fulfil an order, run the website or meet a legal obligation. Depending on the service, this may involve:
We provide each recipient with information relevant to its role. The completed laboratory form and sample follow the collection process for the particular test; we do not read that completed form or handle the sample. We send a report only to someone authorised to receive it under the applicable test arrangements.
We work with laboratory partners in the UK, Europe and the USA. The same general process applies wherever the laboratory is based: the customer completes the laboratory’s paperwork and provides the sample, which are sent to the laboratory carrying out the test. If that laboratory is outside the UK, the information on the completed form and the information generated through testing will be processed there.
Each laboratory has its own arrangements for handling samples, testing records and retention. If you would like to know which laboratory will carry out a particular test or learn more about its privacy practices, please contact us before ordering. We will provide the information available or help obtain an answer.
We keep information for as long as it is needed for the reason it was collected. Essential sales and accounting records are generally kept for six years from the end of the company financial year to which they relate, or longer where a legal requirement or unresolved matter requires it. This does not mean that every detail collected for a test, or a copy of its report, is kept for six years.
Other order and contact details are kept while needed to complete the service and handle related enquiries. We keep a laboratory report while needed to review its main findings, deliver it to the authorised recipient and address any immediate issue about that delivery. We then delete the copy we no longer need.
We review the personal information we hold every two years and delete or anonymise records that are no longer necessary. We also consider deletion requests when we receive them, rather than waiting for the next review.
Where you have consented to marketing, we retain the contact details and consent record needed for that purpose while you remain subscribed. If you withdraw consent, we stop sending marketing and remove information no longer needed for another reason. We may keep a minimal record of your opt-out to ensure that we respect it.
Laboratories set their own retention arrangements for completed consent forms, samples and testing records. Please contact us if you would like the relevant laboratory’s information.
We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the information we handle. Access to reports and other sensitive information is limited to people who need it to manage the service. We also use the laboratory’s specified collection arrangements for samples.
If you believe information relating to an order has been sent to the wrong person or handled incorrectly, please contact us promptly so that we can investigate.
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict its use or to provide certain information in a portable format. You may also have the right to object to some uses of your information.
You can object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing at any time. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before it was withdrawn, and some records may still need to be kept for a legal or other valid reason.
Please use the contact details above to make a request. We may need to verify your identity or, if you are acting for another participant, your authority to do so. We will explain any applicable limits to your request.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you are unhappy with how your information has been handled. We would welcome the chance to address your concern directly.
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for functions such as the shopping basket and security. Where optional analytics or marketing technologies require consent, your choices are managed through the website’s cookie controls. Our Cookie Policy explains these technologies and how to manage your preferences.
We may update this policy when our services or information practices change. The latest version will appear on this page with its updated date. Where a change significantly affects information we already hold, we will take appropriate steps to tell the people concerned.