Answer is mixed. Blackstone is said it will not have access to user data and we are deeply committed to ensuring strong consumer privacy protections at the company. Someone else has said “We will not be sharing user DNA and family tree records with our portfolio companies.”
A well known blogger about Genealogy, Dick Eastman says “Removing your data now from Ancestry.com strikes me as a useless procedure. The web site’s present owners undoubtedly have backup copies of everything entered previously and those copies are included in the sale of all the Ancestry.com assets to Blackstone Inc. Any attempt to remove data from the web site today will not remove anything from the backup copies.”
I personally will wait and see as I use Ancestry as a tool for clients and myself. As to DNA well I am not removing and somewhat expected this type of issue sometime. I am not concerned so much individually about them focused on me, I do think they will use a aggregate data and not so much focus on each individual. My main point would be to save or backup or AncestryTree in Family Tree Maker or in some other software. It should never be held solely on website. Download your tree if you have one now.
Rettammel Genealogy Service 
Thanks for providing this information, Bob. My wife and I, and millions of others are Ancestry members; should we be nervous about this?
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Answer is mixed. Blackstone is said it will not have access to user data and we are deeply committed to ensuring strong consumer privacy protections at the company. Someone else has said “We will not be sharing user DNA and family tree records with our portfolio companies.”
A well known blogger about Genealogy, Dick Eastman says “Removing your data now from Ancestry.com strikes me as a useless procedure. The web site’s present owners undoubtedly have backup copies of everything entered previously and those copies are included in the sale of all the Ancestry.com assets to Blackstone Inc. Any attempt to remove data from the web site today will not remove anything from the backup copies.”
I personally will wait and see as I use Ancestry as a tool for clients and myself. As to DNA well I am not removing and somewhat expected this type of issue sometime. I am not concerned so much individually about them focused on me, I do think they will use a aggregate data and not so much focus on each individual. My main point would be to save or backup or AncestryTree in Family Tree Maker or in some other software. It should never be held solely on website. Download your tree if you have one now.
Bob
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