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Comment by codedokode | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't it be better (for users, not for profitability) if such companies would delete the data after analysis?

DNA analysis is very important, and probably, should be mandatory for everyone planning to have children (to reduce the number of people with incurable or very expensive to treat diseases and save healthcare budget), but with current level of privacy protection the data will just leak around. Also, when DNA screening will become mandatory, government will probably require that it gets a copy of everybody's DNA. Looks like this war is already lost.

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The raw data wasn't leaked, and the data changes over time when other users join. Many people expect this.

23&Me allows you to delete your data and your account if you no longer want to participate.

Do we need to submit a new story to HN covering that the raw genetic data wasn't leaked? Everyone is screaming that sky is falling and ignoring the facts

Eh, for some people the sky is falling. For instance, the original hacker was specifically offering profiles of Ashkenazi Jew, which included full name and location information. I understand how that could be scary in the hands of the wrong people.

Yeah but you could do that by hacking any social media platform and scraping real names and locations to very accurately identify Jews

Yeah that's simply not true, not every Jew labels as such on social media. Also not everyone who is genetically Jewish even identifies as Jewish.

That's why you determine it by their name and where they live.

A thug robbed you on the street, but it's fine because a burglar could have stolen from your house instead.

https://xkcd.com/538/

Yea, that's true - but has little to do with the fact it's a genetic data site. A family tree site with private profiles would have the exact same risk.

The fact that the genetic data isn't involved means this story isn't relevant to people panicking about sharing their genetic data with 23&me.

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