Just three years ago, DNA testing company 23andMe was the golden child of Wall Street and Main Street. Today, the company is struggling to remain listed on the Nasdaq.
Except that leaving it somewhere is like a pseudonym. It would take a lot of effort to pinpoint to once specific person unless that person was already the sole target - then you just get a sample at their home.
It’s not necessary for the person to be the sole target.
By comparing the persons DNA to 2 or 3 relatives in a database, it’s quite easy to identify whose DNA you have, or at least narrow it down to a few potentials. (E.g. the DNA is from a male that is a cousin of X by the male line and nephew of Y by the female line).
all dna is interconnected as all humans are sourced from the same source dna. at some point, we will have enough dna in a database to be able to pinpoint almost any sample to anyone or their family closest in that dataset. it will eventually just be everyone. the set doesnt change, it will just grow as more people are added and its ‘accidentally’ released. its inevitable.
retrieving any humans dna you really want is fairly trivial. we need only minute traces anymore, and it gets less as amplification techniques improve. they already have molecular sniffing devices in all major airports. not for dna, but you get the idea.
ha, yes when you breathe you exhale a lot of particulate into the air, and guess what, its laden with your dna.
personally, i could not care less. have my dna, do what you will with it. oh noooes you have all of the numbers of me… whateverwillido?!
realistically, its only valuable in aggregate.
the only real concern ive ever heard was corporations making decisions on peoples dna, and that can be trivially circumvented by extending discrimination laws.
Well first off it isn’t just you. It is your family as well. Maybe your cousin is more privacy minded and doesn’t appreciate it. Did you get their consent before you spit?
Secondly if you can’t think of how this could be misused you have a failure of imagination. We already know that a list of people with Jewish background leaked and it is an open question what happens next with that, but I highly doubt anything good. Maybe other minorities will be targeted next? Roma for example or the autistic. It doesn’t even have to be nightmarish like terrorism and tailored germs it could be boring oppression.
Right so just because something might happen eventually doesn’t absolve anyone of what we do today.
It is already understood that you don’t really have a right to privacy decades after your death. If someone wants to map out my DNA and sell it they can when I am dead and my kids are dead and my grandkids are dead with my blessing.
ha no, this is happening today. we are catching criminals today that are tangentially related to dna samples in databases all over the place. its not going to be multiple decades after death. the more data added. the easier it is today to be able triangulate people already related to you. because at the heart of the matter, we are all related.
the resolution will only get better in the next few years as we start slapping LLMs on it.
your dna has no value.
dna databases have value.
i agree, no need to wait on extending anti-discrimination laws. lets do it yesterday.
I don’t trust them or anyone else with my data, let alone my DNA
Well someone’s not getting reborn 200M years from now in Cenozoic Park.
Dun dun! Dun duuun! Dun-da daaa da-dun dun daaaah! flails silly human arms RAAAH!!!
“They do move in herds!”
That’s why I prefer to let mosquitos bite me.
Mr. DNA‽ Where did you come from‽
that stuff that you breathe out, slough off and leave literally every places youve ever been? yeah, need to keep that under wraps.
Except that leaving it somewhere is like a pseudonym. It would take a lot of effort to pinpoint to once specific person unless that person was already the sole target - then you just get a sample at their home.
Also, breathing out DNA?
It’s not necessary for the person to be the sole target.
By comparing the persons DNA to 2 or 3 relatives in a database, it’s quite easy to identify whose DNA you have, or at least narrow it down to a few potentials. (E.g. the DNA is from a male that is a cousin of X by the male line and nephew of Y by the female line).
all dna is interconnected as all humans are sourced from the same source dna. at some point, we will have enough dna in a database to be able to pinpoint almost any sample to anyone or their family closest in that dataset. it will eventually just be everyone. the set doesnt change, it will just grow as more people are added and its ‘accidentally’ released. its inevitable.
retrieving any humans dna you really want is fairly trivial. we need only minute traces anymore, and it gets less as amplification techniques improve. they already have molecular sniffing devices in all major airports. not for dna, but you get the idea.
ha, yes when you breathe you exhale a lot of particulate into the air, and guess what, its laden with your dna.
personally, i could not care less. have my dna, do what you will with it. oh noooes you have all of the numbers of me… whateverwillido?!
realistically, its only valuable in aggregate.
the only real concern ive ever heard was corporations making decisions on peoples dna, and that can be trivially circumvented by extending discrimination laws.
Disingenuous at best
i care more about my amazon password leaking than anyone having my irrevocably unchangeable dna. why worry about it?
Found the 23&me CEO 👆
huh?
Don’t play dumb
i point out some basic facts about DNA and suddenly im some moron who thinks DNA is a business?
dont play idiot
Yes.
Glad you came to that self realization. Saves us all a bunch of time.
Edit: If DNA wasn’t a business, Henrietta Lacks cells wouldn’t be a thing.
Well first off it isn’t just you. It is your family as well. Maybe your cousin is more privacy minded and doesn’t appreciate it. Did you get their consent before you spit?
Secondly if you can’t think of how this could be misused you have a failure of imagination. We already know that a list of people with Jewish background leaked and it is an open question what happens next with that, but I highly doubt anything good. Maybe other minorities will be targeted next? Roma for example or the autistic. It doesn’t even have to be nightmarish like terrorism and tailored germs it could be boring oppression.
i get your fear, really, i do. ive never said it couldnt be abused. im saying dna is not private. its the worlds longest username.
it is a finite dataset. it will be inevitably be mapped across the entire planet, and guess what, it will be public.
you want to approach the Use of this data, go crazy. that is an important task.
i am personally not going to go around pretending my code is special or valuable or not publicly available.
you can do you, but at some point regardless of any activity on your part, you will be on the graph.
Right so just because something might happen eventually doesn’t absolve anyone of what we do today.
It is already understood that you don’t really have a right to privacy decades after your death. If someone wants to map out my DNA and sell it they can when I am dead and my kids are dead and my grandkids are dead with my blessing.
ha no, this is happening today. we are catching criminals today that are tangentially related to dna samples in databases all over the place. its not going to be multiple decades after death. the more data added. the easier it is today to be able triangulate people already related to you. because at the heart of the matter, we are all related.
the resolution will only get better in the next few years as we start slapping LLMs on it.
your dna has no value.
dna databases have value.
i agree, no need to wait on extending anti-discrimination laws. lets do it yesterday.
but again, my dna is not private, today.
The pre-cogs have determined that you will commit murder in 20 years. Please do not resist when you are arrested for future crime.