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Comment by ks2048 | Hacker News Reader

ks2048

There are troubling privacy issues, but it was able to tell me: "Toe Length Ratio : Likely second toe longer". I didn't even have to look down!

Maybe it was a bad idea. But, I figured if we enter a dystopian future, evil health care companies or governments could easily get my DNA if they want to and/or simply require that information to get care. When you get blood drawn, do you see what they do with it?

Hopefully, what matters is the laws we all fight for and not whether I sent my spit to an internet company in 2022.

Anyways, will delete my data.

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> But, I figured if we enter a dystopian future, evil health care companies or governments could easily get my DNA if they want to and/or simply require that information to get care.

Yes, because you gave it to them. Nihilism undermines any sort of resistance movement against evil.

I think it's a mistake to think that the tyrannical governments of the future will be sophisticated. The way the trend is going, they will be ever more banal. They're not going to target a virus for you, they're going to knock down your door, shout at you, lock you up or shoot you. They likely won't even bother with having chatgpt write up a pretext for it.

That doesn't mean we can do nothing, but it means withholding information won't matter as much as some people think.

There's not much resistance to someone wanting your DNA. It's so trivial to get that you'd basically need to become a hermit to try and prevent it. A hermit that shaves themselves and burns their trash, one that lives with gloves on dyrung every waking hour and disinfects their chair and bed daily.

It's not really something the mass population can physically prevent from a determined actor. Like data, you need to regulate it instead of take excessive preventative measures.

This is a wrong mindset. Just because its technically possible to obtain DNA we should all give it up easily since its already a lost cause? Its one thing if you are specifically targeted for whatever reasons, then yes one is screwed.

Another is to have all info and weaknesses automatically available to 'the man' or more 'the men', no need to make things too easy for them and jump ahead in queue.

>Just because its technically possible to obtain DNA we should all give it up easily since its already a lost cause?

Yes. I'm lazy, and at thaat level of compromised data: it is much easier to disincentivize theft than to worry about theft at every corner. You need to change your approach away from the immediate instincts.

>Another is to have all info and weaknesses automatically available to 'the man' or more 'the men'

They already have it. Fortuately, we made laws disincentivizing them using that stuff without big reprecussions.

It's completely different. Sure, someone can specifically target me and get my DNA, but they can't trawl for me in an existing database.

>but they can't trawl for me in an existing database.

Sure they can. The government obviously can. Otherwise they just buy data from the decade of tracking data left behind. That's the relatively easier part in comparison to targeted DNA gathering.

They can't trawl my DNA in an existing database, because I'm not in it and, AFAIK, neither are my relatives.

No he didn't but his overly curious aunt Janice gave it to them.

He really did - the post indicates he got an analysis back from 23andme.

You can request your data from a section in the site first if you like. Some of the downloads say they can take a few days to generate, but all were available within a day of my requests.

They told me I have an average to lower risk for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

All I wanted to know, since my grandpa died of Parkinson's.

you could have asked you primary care doctor for a test, instead of paying a company for the privilege of creating a dna map to sell to law enforcement.

23andme sells this for a set price, advertised on their website.

A clinic usually asks you to sign a form that says you are responsible for paying whatever they and an unaffiliated laboratory end up saying you owe. Minimum being $250, and maximum being unknown.

That may sadly be more expensive in the US. Even if you're insured, the copay + coinsurance may still cost you more out of pocket for such tests, depending on the specialists needed.

Looking at how the current administration is following laws and court orders I think you might have too much trust in laws

> I didn't even have to look down!

Hilarious, I love it.

Next you're gonna say they told you that you'll probably die of something that you can forestall a bit with good diet and exercise.

Looking at my "Reports Summary", it's all mundane stuff like the toe thing I mentioned. It seems all the medically relevant stuff require premium subscription.

This could actually be a plot point on a dystopian sci-fi movie (identifying people by weird metrics like toe size and such)

You might like Gattaca if you haven't seen it.

One of my favorite movies

That sort of thing is already in widespread usage. For example palm geometry readers as a biometric factor to go along with a key card at a building entrance.

Although in the future I imagine it's more likely to be things like arm to torso ratio or gait recognition or similar, done via machine vision.

It's different

Biometric comparison is commonplace, once you give your biometric info

What I'm saying is that people would be id'd by a biometric measure derived from a genetic measure

(and yes of course I watched Gattaca already)

Like browser fingerprinting.

Like fingerprint fingerprinting?

no. fingerprinting is like denying a kid at a carnival ride with a height check.

what this thread is about is denying a kid a kindergarten spot because the dna shows their height will never get them a basketball college scholarship.

Your example doesn’t make any sense, because they could do it right now: most of the kids are never going to get a basketball college scholarship, everyone knows it, including schools, and they don’t care

It's an example of a thing that doesn't make any sense.

And people are made to care about things that don't actually make any sense all the time, you just gotta set up the incentives just right.

I'm very glad this wasn't productised before my in-laws were my in-laws

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