What actually happens to your file
Your DNA is about the most personal data there is, so "trust us" isn't good enough. Here's the real mechanism: what the code does the moment you hit Analyze, in plain language, with nothing rounded up.
Short version: it's read in memory, used once to build your report, then erased. Never written to a disk, never stored, never sold. You shouldn't have to take that on faith, so the long version is below.
The whole life of your file
Start to finish, it lasts one request. A second or two.
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01
It leaves your browser once, encrypted
When you upload, the file travels to our server over an encrypted HTTPS connection, the same kind a bank uses. It goes one place, once. We don't hand it to any other company along the way.
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02
It's read straight from memory
The file is parsed in memory into a plain list of marker-to-genotype pairs. It is never written to a hard drive, a database, or a log. No copy is saved, so there's no copy to lose, leak, or subpoena.
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03
A few dozen markers get matched to research
We only look at the well-studied markers we actually report on. That's a small panel, not your whole genome. We line them up against published studies, and your report names every marker we read, so you can see exactly how thin the slice is.
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04
Then it's erased
The instant your report is built, the file and your genotypes are deleted from memory. Same request, no delay, nothing parked in a queue for later. By the time the page lands in your browser, there is nothing left on our end to keep.
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05
The report is yours
It renders in your browser and lives with you. If you save the PDF, the only thing sent back is the short marker list already shown on the page, a few dozen lines. Never your original file.
What we never do
- ✕Write your raw DNA to a disk, database, or log file.
- ✕Make you create an account or hand over an email to see your free report.
- ✕Run ad trackers, analytics pixels, or cookies that follow you around the web.
- ✕Sell or share your data, with anyone, for any reason. Genetic data is treated as sensitive, full stop.
The one thing we keep, only if you ask
The free report keeps nothing. The single exception is if you opt into "Watch my genome", where you're asking us to email you when new research touches your results. For that, and only that, we store exactly two things: your email, and the short marker list from your report. Never your raw file. It's gone the moment you hit unsubscribe, no questions, no waiting.
For the skeptics, and good for you
You don't have to believe any of the above. A few things you can check yourself:
It's one round trip
Read, analyze, delete, respond. All inside a single request. There's no background job quietly stashing your file somewhere to process "later."
The page can't phone home
Curaen ships a Content-Security-Policy that only lets the page send data back to us, nowhere else, and blocks it from being framed by another site. Even if something tried to ship your data off, the browser would refuse.
Check the network tab
The only outside requests your browser makes are for fonts and the styling library, the things that draw the page. No Google Analytics, no Meta pixel, no ad network. Open your developer tools and watch; that's the whole guest list, and none of them ever see a byte of your genome.
Audit what we read
Your report prints the exact markers it used. Cross-reference them against your raw file. What you see on the page is everything we touched. Nothing hidden, nothing extra.
This page is the how. The Privacy policy is the legal promise behind it, and the Terms cover the rest. Questions about your data go to [email protected].