Helix Transparency Report

When a user gives us their DNA, they also give us their trust. Helix maintains this trust by making data privacy a key focus and by providing transparency about when, how, and why users’ data are used and shared. Our Privacy Policy details what we do with a user’s data through their journey on the Helix Platform. To give you insight beyond our typical data usage, we produced this Transparency Report—a summary about the requests we have received regarding disclosure of user data.

The types of requests covered in this document come from third parties, such as law enforcement. For some requests, we may be required by law to disclose user data. For instance, we must comply with valid warrants, court orders, and other legal processes. We evaluate all requests for user data on a case-by-case basis. We notify the subject of such requests before sharing any data, unless we are legally barred from doing so. We require that all requests are narrow in scope and legally valid. We also require that all requests comply with valid legal procedures. We will object to any request that does not meet legal standards. You can find more details about these standards in our Law Enforcement Guide.

This report does not cover our partners. Our partners are third parties that we work with to offer genetic insights and research opportunities to users. These partners receive user data from Helix only with users’ consent. Our partners may also receive requests to disclose user data. For details about how our partners respond to these requests, please refer directly to our partners.

Reports from previous years can be found here.

• Overview
• Requests for user data
• Number of requests
• National security requests
• Information for law enforcement

Overview

• In 2017, 2018, and 2019, Helix received zero requests for user data.
• As of December 31, 2019, Helix has not received any national security requests for user data.

Requests for user data

Number of requests

In 2017, 2018, and 2019, Helix received zero valid requests for user data. In the table below, we have outlined these statistics:

• The number of requests for user data that we received;
• The number of users whose accounts were part of the requests;
• The number of requests that we complied with, either in whole or in part; and
• The percent of requests that we complied with, either in whole or in part.

These statistics are broken down by the source of the requests. The sources are either countries or private parties. We do not disclose user data to private parties from outside of the US.

National security requests

As of December 31, 2019, Helix has not received any classified national security request for user data. Such requests include the following:

• A National Security Letter (NSL);
• An order made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); or
• Any other classified national security request for user data from any country.

Information for law enforcement

If you are a law enforcement body, please review our Law Enforcement Guide. It outlines our standards for user data requests.