Genetic Information Policy
1. About This Policy
This Genetic Information Policy explains how BioSport, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("BioSport," "we," "us," or "our"), handles your genetic data, biological samples, and sequencing results when you participate in our genetic services through the Website at www.thebiosport.com and the App. It supplements our Privacy Policy and Health Data Policy. Where this Policy and the Privacy Policy describe the same topic, the more protective provision applies.
2. What Genetic Services We Offer
Where offered in your country and where you choose to participate, our genetic services may include:
- Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) — sequencing of your entire genome from a saliva or blood-spot sample collected at home.
- Targeted genotyping and panel testing for specific conditions (pharmacogenomics, nutrition response, fitness response, carrier screening).
- Variant interpretation and personalized reports.
- Polygenic risk scores (where supported by current evidence).
- Optional reanalysis as scientific evidence evolves.
The sequencing and clinical-grade interpretation are performed by BioAro Labs, our laboratory partner based in California, United States. BioSport receives the resulting data from BioAro Labs under a written agreement and presents it to you through the Services.
3. Eligibility
You may use our genetic services only if you:
- Are at least eighteen (18) years old.
- Have the legal capacity to consent to genetic testing.
- Are providing your own biological sample, or you are the legal guardian of a minor or incapacitated adult whose sample is being submitted with all required parental, guardian, or court authorisations.
- Have not been compelled by an employer, insurer, or any other third party to submit a sample.
- Are not located in a country where DTC genetic testing is restricted or prohibited.
4. Layered Consent
Because genetic data is uniquely sensitive, durable, and revealing, we use a layered consent model. Before any genetic service begins, you will be asked to consent separately to each of the following:
- Sample collection — producing and submitting your saliva or blood-spot sample.
- Sequencing — generating raw sequencing data from your sample.
- Interpretation and reports — analysing your sequencing data and showing you variant, risk, and trait reports.
- Storage — keeping your sequencing data and/or biological sample for the period you select (see Section 12).
- Re-contact — allowing us to contact you if a clinically actionable new finding emerges (see Section 11).
- Research participation — entirely separate, strictly opt-in (see Section 10).
- Sharing with relatives or healthcare providers — only where you explicitly authorise it.
You can withdraw any consent at any time without affecting consents you wish to retain. Withdrawal stops future processing for that purpose and may, at your choice, also trigger destruction of the underlying data or sample.
5. The Sample-Collection and Sequencing Process
- We ship a sealed sample-collection kit to the address you provide.
- You collect the sample at home according to the in-kit instructions and return it to BioAro Labs by the use-by date, using the return materials provided in the kit.
- Samples returned after the use-by date, contaminated, or improperly packaged may be rejected, in which case we will offer a replacement kit at our discretion.
- BioAro Labs sequences the sample and returns the data to BioSport under a written agreement that imposes confidentiality, security, and use restrictions consistent with this Policy.
- Hardware and kit terms are also governed by Section 7 of our Terms of Service.
6. What Your Genetic Data Reveals — Things to Understand Before You Start
Family implications. Genetic data reveals information not just about you, but about your biological relatives — parents, siblings, children, and more distant relatives. Consider discussing your participation with family before submitting a sample.
Durability. Genetic data is permanent and cannot be "changed." Once it has been generated or disclosed (even inadvertently), it cannot be undone.
Surprising findings. Genetic testing may reveal information you did not expect, including misattributed parentage, previously unknown relatives, ancestry that differs from family expectations, or risk for serious medical conditions. We provide context and, where serious findings are returned, can refer you to genetic-counselling resources.
Predictive limits. Most genetic findings are probabilistic, not deterministic. Polygenic risk scores, in particular, are influenced by ancestry, environment, and lifestyle, and are most predictive for populations of European descent (an industry-wide limitation we work to improve). Treat all reports as one input alongside professional medical advice.
Right not to know. You may choose not to receive certain categories of findings (for example, predisposition to late-onset incurable conditions). Your choices are recorded at consent and can be changed at any time.
7. How We Protect Your Genetic Data
- Layered encryption at rest beyond our standard AES-256, with separate key management for genetic data.
- Strict role-based access — only personnel with a documented need can access identifiable genetic data, and every access is logged.
- Pseudonymisation between the lab and our analytics systems where technically feasible.
- Multi-factor authentication required to view your own genetic results in the App, in line with our Information Security Policy.
- Annual penetration testing of the genetic-data systems specifically, in addition to platform-wide testing.
- Written agreements with laboratory and analysis partners imposing equivalent protections.
8. Reports You Will Receive
Reports are presented in your in-app Genetic Centre and may include:
- Disease-risk reports limited to variants with sufficient evidence under current standards (e.g., variants classified Pathogenic or Likely Pathogenic under ACMG/AMP guidelines).
- Pharmacogenomic reports indicating how your genetics may influence medication response (PGx).
- Carrier-status reports for selected autosomal-recessive conditions.
- Trait and wellness reports (e.g., caffeine metabolism, lactose tolerance, exercise response).
- Ancestry composition reports.
- Polygenic risk scores for selected conditions, with caveats about evidence strength and ancestry-dependent accuracy.
Where a secondary or incidental finding is clinically actionable, we surface it according to your "right not to know" preferences. Where you have opted in to receive such findings, we provide context and may refer you to a clinical genetic-counselling resource.
9. Discrimination Protections — What the Law Does and Does Not Cover
Genetic information is protected against certain forms of discrimination, but the coverage varies by jurisdiction and is not complete:
- In the United States, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibits health-insurance and employment discrimination based on genetic information. GINA does NOT cover life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance. Some states (e.g., California, Florida) add additional protections.
- In Canada, the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act 2017 prohibits requiring or using genetic test results as a condition of providing goods, services, or contracts, including insurance and employment.
- In the United Kingdom, there is a voluntary Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance: insurers will not ask for or use the results of predictive genetic tests below a high financial threshold.
- In the European Union, the Oviedo Convention and national laws restrict the use of genetic information; specific protections vary by member state.
- Other countries have varying protections, which may be broader or narrower than the above.
Before participating, consider whether you are planning a major life-insurance, disability-insurance, or long-term-care-insurance purchase in a jurisdiction where genetic results may be requested. We do not provide legal or insurance advice.
10. Research Participation — Strictly Opt-In
You may, separately and entirely at your option, choose to allow your de-identified (and, in some studies and only with separate explicit consent, identifiable) genetic data to be used in research conducted by BioSport or by approved academic, clinical, or commercial partners.
- Research participation is never required to use our genetic services.
- Each study you join is governed by a separate, study-specific consent form describing the purpose, the data involved, the sharing arrangements, and your rights.
- You may withdraw from any study at any time. Withdrawal stops future use of your data; data already analysed and aggregated cannot always be retrieved.
- We do not sell genetic data. Where research partners pay us for access to a study cohort, the payment is for the operational costs of running the study, not for the data itself, and you receive a plain-language summary of any commercial arrangement before consent.
11. Re-Contact for New Findings — Opt-In
Scientific understanding of genetic variation evolves. With your separate opt-in, we may re-contact you if a clinically actionable new finding emerges in your data (for example, a variant previously classified as uncertain is reclassified as pathogenic). You can opt in or out of re-contact at any time. Where you have not opted in, we will not contact you about new findings.
12. Storage, Retention, and Destruction
At consent, you choose how long we and our laboratory partner retain your sequencing data and biological sample. The options are:
- Active retention — we keep your data and sample for the life of your account, so we can run reanalyses and you can access new reports.
- Limited retention — we keep the minimum data required to deliver the reports you have purchased, then destroy further data after a defined period.
- Destruction on request — you can ask us, at any time, to destroy your biological sample and delete your sequencing data, subject to limited exceptions required by law. Destruction is confirmed in writing.
13. Sharing Restrictions — What We Will Not Do
- We will never sell your genetic data.
- We will never share your genetic data with advertisers or use it to target advertising.
- We will never share your genetic data with your employer, even if you access the Services through a corporate wellness programme.
- We will never share your genetic data with insurance companies.
- We will never share your genetic data with data brokers.
- We will never disclose your genetic data to law enforcement voluntarily. We will challenge familial-DNA-search requests and any non-court-ordered demand. We will require a valid court order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction over BioSport before disclosing, and will notify you where lawfully permitted.
- We will only share with healthcare providers or relatives where you specifically authorise it.
- We will share with our accredited laboratory and analysis partners only as needed to deliver your service, under written contracts imposing equivalent protections.
14. International Transfers of Genetic Data
Genetic data may be processed by our laboratory partners and by us in the United States and the European Union. International transfers are protected by the safeguards described in our Privacy Policy (Standard Contractual Clauses, UK Addendum, EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework where applicable). Some jurisdictions restrict cross-border export of genetic data; where you are resident in such a jurisdiction, we will inform you and only proceed with your explicit consent.
15. Minors and Genetic Testing
We do not offer genetic services directly to individuals under eighteen (18). A parent or legal guardian may submit a sample on behalf of a minor only where (i) the minor's sample is being collected for a clinically indicated reason that benefits the minor's health, and (ii) the parent or guardian completes the additional consent required by our Children's and Minors Safety Policy. Predictive testing of minors for adult-onset conditions is generally not offered, in line with international guidance.
16. Kit Lifecycle, Refunds, and Returns
- Unused, unactivated kits may be returned within thirty (30) days of delivery for a refund of the purchase price, less reasonable return shipping where applicable.
- Used or activated kits cannot be returned for hygiene and safety reasons.
- If your sample is rejected by the laboratory through no fault of yours, we will provide a replacement kit at no additional charge. If your sample is rejected because it was returned after the use-by date or was improperly handled, a replacement kit may be offered at the standard kit price.
- You may cancel your participation at any time before the laboratory has begun sequencing, and we will refund any unconsumed portion of the service.
17. Use of Genetic Data in Our AI Models
- We do NOT send your identifiable genetic data to third-party model providers (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google) for them to train their general-purpose foundation models.
- Where we use a third-party model in a feature that touches genetic data, we operate it in a privacy-preserving configuration that does not allow the provider to use your data for training.
- Our own AI models that use genetic data are governed by our AI Governance Policy and our Bias and Fairness Policy, including specific work on cross-ancestry validity.
- You can turn off "Help improve BioSport" in the in-app Privacy Centre at any time. This excludes even your de-identified genetic data from future model-improvement work.
- Where an AI output has a significant effect on you (for example, a clinical risk flag), human review is available on request.
18. Limits on What We Provide
- We do not provide paternity, kinship, or forensic identification services.
- We do not provide diagnostic confirmation of any condition. Our reports are informational; clinical diagnosis requires evaluation by a qualified clinician.
- We do not provide pharmacogenomic results as a substitute for professional prescribing decisions.
- We do not provide preimplantation, prenatal, or fertility-treatment genetic analyses through the consumer Services.
19. Contact Us
