A consumer-genomics vault, built after the 23andMe bankruptcy
End-to-end encrypted · on-demand destruction

Cinderkin.

Privacy-first genetics for the family you actually want to remember.

Autosomal SNP kits, an opt-in whole-genome upgrade, and an AI-assisted family-tree builder — wrapped in an encrypted vault you own, so your DNA never becomes someone else’s asset.

  • E2E-encrypted vault
  • One-click destruction
  • Plain-language reports
Your sequence lives in your vault — encrypted by default.

Not for advertisers. For the family you actually want to remember.

What it is

A vault, a report, and a lineage — held by you.

Three commitments, written into the architecture rather than the marketing. Each shows up the day you sign up — and the day you leave.

The vault

Your genome, encrypted by default.

Every account is end-to-end encrypted at rest. We hold the cipher, you hold the keys — so your raw sequence, your match list, and your family graph are unreadable to us, to advertisers, and to an acquirer in a bankruptcy auction.

Reports

Plain language. FDA-aligned.

Ancestry composition, inherited health risks, carrier status, and drug-response variants — written for you, not for a clinician intermediary. Direct-to-consumer guidelines, not gatekept.

Lineage

A living lineage, not a screenshot.

AI-assisted tree building merges DNA matches with historical records, photos, and oral history into one graph that updates as new kin, documents, or migrations surface.

How it works

Four steps. No middleman.

A kit to a lineage to a vault you walk with. The XOR gets interesting if and only if you want it to.

  1. 01

    Order an autosomal SNP kit.

    A consumer-grade cheek swab for ancestry composition and relative matching. Priced for the family, not the round-trip to a clinic.

  2. 02

    Opt in to whole-genome sequencing.

    When, and only when, you want pharmacogenomic and trait-level reporting, upgrade to clinical-grade WGS. Default is SNP-only.

  3. 03

    Watch the lineage grow.

    DNA matches, historical records, photographs, and oral history converge into one living graph — annotated, visualised, exportable.

  4. 04

    Your call. Always.

    Export your raw sequence, your match list, and your graph at any time. Or destroy everything — vault included — and walk. No dark patterns.

The category inflection

After the 2024 bankruptcy and TTAM acquisition, your genome cannot be a corporate asset.

The legacy incumbents built consumer genomics on top of a model where your DNA was also their data — licensed, aggregated, or sold to whoever held the longest note. That model is now over. Cinderkin is built on the alternative: a vault you control, consent you can revoke, and a hard exit if we ever fail.

Ciphertext-only on our servers

Even we cannot read your vault.

No data as a business model

We make money on kits and reports.

Bankruptcy is a hard exit

Not a transition for your genome.

Who it’s for

Built for the audiences the incumbents underserve.

Adoptees & donor-conceived

Find your people. Keep your record.

Cinderkin was designed for the search for biological kin without surrendering the genetic record to advertisers. Opt-in matching, opt-out matching, and a vault you walk with.

Multigenerational families

Heritage across migrations.

A lineage graph built by generations — DNA matches plus paper-plus-photo-plus-story. The branch you trace is the branch you keep, owned by your family, hosted in your vault.

Health-curious consumers

Clinical-grade. Consumer-paced.

Pharmacogenomic and trait reporting with FDA-aligned direct-to-consumer guidelines — without the perceived privacy trade-offs of the legacy players that came before us.

Privacy posture

Six principles. Written into architecture, not a footer.

Every line below is a constraint on the platform rather than a promise on a slide. If we publish a feature that conflicts with one of these, that feature does not ship.

01

End-to-end encryption by default

Raw sequence, match list, family graph, and report files live in a vault you hold the keys to. We cannot read them — not for support, not for analytics, not under subpoena.

02

No sale, no share, no secondary use

Your data is not a product. We do not license it to pharma, insurers, advertisers, or research partners. We make money on kits and reports — that is the business model.

03

Granular consent, in plain English

Toggle each use on its own: relative matching, ancestry composition, health-risk reporting, WGS upgrade, lineage-graph sharing. Consent is a state, not a checkbox you sign once.

04

On-demand export

One click takes your raw FASTQ, your SNP VCF, your match table, and your full lineage graph (GEDCOM + ours) out the door in standard formats. Yours.

05

On-demand destruction

One click purges your account, your vault, your reports, and your samples. The keys are wiped; the ciphertext is unreadable from that moment forward. We keep nothing.

06

No acquirer escape hatch

In the event of our bankruptcy or acquisition, the vault does not change hands. Trust is not portable — bankruptcy is a hard exit, not a transition period for your genome.

G1ancestorG1ancestorG2parentG2parentG3you

Lineage tooling

The tree keeps up with you.

A single graph that merges DNA matches with historical records, photographs, and oral history — annotated, visualised, and exportable. New kin, new documents, new migrations: the graph grows without losing the branch beneath.

  • DNA matches and paper records share the same graph — no parallel trees.
  • Attach primary sources: censuses, ship manifests, parish registers, oral history.
  • Exportable as GEDCOM plus an open lineage format — your research, your files.

Seal your vault

Two steps. Then your data is yours — really.

Pick a passphrase and write down the recovery phrase the browser hands you. WebCrypto does the heavy lifting here; only the salt and an encrypted stub ever reach the server.

Create your vault~40 seconds · nothing leaves the browser until step 4

Passphrase + recovery phrase

Both factors enter your key. Lose neither.

Enforced 600 000 PBKDF2 rounds

The server refuses weaker derivations on principle.

Ciphertext-only on our side

We literally cannot decrypt your vault.

Questions

Frequently, asked plainly.

How is Cinderkin different from 23andMe and Ancestry?
The category incumbents put your data on their balance sheet — and we saw in 2024 what that costs. Cinderkin is built on the opposite premise: your genome lives in an end-to-end-encrypted vault you control. No sale, no share, no acquisition escape hatch, and one-click export or destruction. Same analytical depth; a fundamentally different trust model.
What does "end-to-end encryption" actually mean here?
Raw sequence data, match lists, family graphs, and report files are encrypted in your account with keys only you hold. Our servers hold ciphertext. We cannot read your data — for support, for analytics, or under legal process. You export or destroy at any time, and keys can be wiped independent of the database.
Can I take my data with me if I leave?
Yes. One click exports your raw FASTQ, SNP VCF, match table, and family graph in standard formats (FASTQ, VCF, CSV, GEDCOM). Your data leaves with you — no retention, no re-import tax.
What about FDA-aligned reporting?
Reports are written in plain language and surfaced within FDA guidelines for direct-to-consumer health communication: ancestry composition, inherited health risks, carrier status, and drug-response variants. We do not push clinical interpretation that requires a medical intermediary.
Do you sell or share data with researchers, insurers, or advertisers?
No. The business model is kits and reports. Your data is not a product. If you opt in to research participation, it is opt-in, scoped, and revocable — never the default.
What happens to my data if Cinderkin is acquired or goes bankrupt?
The vault does not change hands. Acquisition is a hard exit for your data: keys are unaffected, and you retain the ability to export or destroy. We are built so that our corporate fate cannot become your genetic fate.
Quietly in development · invite list

Take custody of your genome.

We’re building Cinderkin in the open, with the people who have the most to lose from a category that gets privacy wrong. Drop your email and we’ll reach out as we open the vault.

No newsletter, no “marketing list”. Just the invite.