Why would anyone willingly hand over their DNA to a third party like this?*
23andME HAS handed your most personal data over to the authorities.
*(Same reason people willingly install wiretaps in their houses aka Alexa and Google Home)
23andME HAS handed your most personal data over to the authorities.
*(Same reason people willingly install wiretaps in their houses aka Alexa and Google Home)
It's easy to link a database and profile millions of people. It's much higher effort for them to come and get my DNA.
Now just wait for some strange shift in power. I hope I do not wake up in ten years, leave my house and am welcomed by the authorities (maybe the Evocops), because my subpar DNA didn't pass some unit test.
It's pretty much the same story with milder stuff like insurance. If companies can make money by offering discounts for people with genes they like, the insurance company not having your DNA isn't going to make your insurance any cheaper. Or employment, enough people will share their DNA that it becomes a necessary step towards getting the job.
The consequences all flow from allowing society to become hell, not from sharing the DNA.
Because one requires instating mass testing while another requires just gaining permission to an existing treasure trove, albiet a subset.
What could they do with this information that makes it so bad? Well, they could do something like familial searching, which seeks to identify the last name of potential suspects through a DNA analysis focusing on the Y chromosome. And a "promising" match from someone who donated their genetic info, could lead to your wrongful arrest... Don't think it could happen, try it already has
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_1b3a3f96...
https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andprivacy-your-d...
I doubt most of the people intentionally avoiding Alexas and 23andMe also have shower pads that help prevent slipping. This is why I think most of this anxiety comes down to some combination of neo- & techno-phobia, like we saw with GMO crops.
Certainly some people have. A court case recently had Amazon turn over Echo recordings.
Similarly, your DNA could be used to place you in relation to a crime scene whether you committed that crime or not. I certainly don't want someone I bumped into earlier to have my DNA on them when their body is found if my DNA is trivially searchable. I'd much rather have them need to go through me and my lawyer before any of that is possible.
I don't like the better-safe-than-sorry argument when it comes to security. I think it leads to bad policy and bad decisions. I've been thinking about this after I read a story[1] about a family that has been told that they cannot let their young kids ride a city bus by themselves. It's a similar argument - the value of kids gaining independence is big and the risk of something atrocious happening is tiny.
[1]:https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/06/a-dad-in-bc-l...
Depends on your lifestyle and how valuable you think these things are, but I find these things almost entirely valueless. I think virtual assistants are basically total trash - I can type my query on my damn phone faster and more accurately than the Echo or Google can get it - and I just see no value in DNA sequencing unless you're looking for a specific medical condition, the fluffy interest in stuff like racial makeup just seems like a shitty trade-off to me.
Also keep in mind that with DNA you are not just making the decision for yourself. Your relatives share significant parts of your DNA, thus the potential risks will affect your brothers kids /etc as well. Consider asking their opinion / getting their consent.
I'm willing to tolerate a pretty high level of risk. I either drive my car or ride my bicycle to work 5 days a week. I've gone scuba diving before. I rode a motorcycle for 30 years (I just sold it). I occasionally eat fast food. Crazy, right?
For 23andMe, do you know of some ways that people have actually been harmed by their test results? I wonder what percentage of their customers regret signing up?