DNA might contain health information, but unlike a doctor’s office, 23andMe is not bound by the health-privacy law HIPAA. And the company’s privacy policies make clear that in the event of a merger or an acquisition, customer information is a salable asset. 23andMe promises to ask its customers’ permission before using their data for research or targeted advertising, but that doesn’t mean the next boss will do the same. It says so right there in the fine print: The company reserves the right to update its policies at any time. A spokesperson acknowledged to me this week that the company can’t fully guarantee the sanctity of customer data, but said in a statement that “any scenario which impacts our customer’s data would need to be carefully considered. We take the privacy and trust of our customers very seriously, and would strive to maintain commitments outlined in our Privacy Statement.”
We take it very seriously, just not as seriously as money.
“I mean, we would have to receive a pretty excellent offer to violate our customers’ privacy—which is super important to us. (We reserve the right to also accept offers ranging from “pretty decent” to “doable,” or in the event of our profits not really getting us hard anymore, we may also accept “any” offer.) Your privacy is very important to us.”
There needs to be government protection of your DNA, but the government probably doesn’t want that
23 Data Miners and Me.
I remember I didn’t and thank fucking god, because this would have been me:
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/23andme-user-data-stolen-shkenazi-jewish-users/3336464/
Still waiting for the fallout from that. It won’t be pretty.
Jesus Christ. between this and the third reich ohio sherriff, we may be in for a very bad time. Dude is referring to immigrants as a plague of locusts, and calling on his violent right wing extremists to target those he sees as political opponents.
Climate change is just going to continue accelerating the amount of migration we see from less developed countries. This type of violent extremism needs to be nipped in the bud before it destroys us.
Yeah. Why am I not surprised.
You’re not surprised at the leak, or you’re not surprised that squid is Jewish?
The moderator of /c/Jewish is Jewish? No shit.
Don’t let this sort of thing out to the general Lemmy population or they’ll try to steal my latkes!
HA ! Sweet vindication! I’ve been preaching to friends and family not to use these DNA companies for this and other reasons. They called me a loon and I should get my tin foil hat. I cant wait to see their faces
5 spaces after punctuations seems excessive .
That’s why their friends call them a long
Tried to read article but it fades out and can’t resd whole thing. Anyone got the article I can read?
Its always fun being ridiculed, mocked, and insulted by your family because you dare to point out the dangers of something obviously dangerous.
And yet, when shit hits the fan… who do they come running to begging to fix it?
Why, You, of course.
because you must forever clean up the shit, but you can never prevent the shit.
I’m not bitter or anything.
I’m so glad I never sent them my DNA. It was tempting from a genealogy perspective. But my concerns about privacy and them selling on customer information always weighed heavier than that temptation.
But I feel a lot of sympathy for those who used their services. For a while they incessantly advertised them, including via paid endorsements from many ‘trusted’ podcasters and YouTubers. The company’s failure should bring to the fore a drive for new laws in many countries to protect consumers’ DNA from being monetized and exploited. But sadly we all know it won’t.
So the fun thing about genetics is… if you said no, but they conned enough of your family, they got a good part of your genome anyhow.
In my case, Mom was somewhat interested about it when it came out. Dad too. And i told them no to, because, well one, sharing data bad. But also, this buisiness is a one off. There are no repeat customers and it was destined to be sold to the highest bidder.
For once, my parents listened. But good god. This company has already been mined by police to use genetic info from relatives to convict their family members. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/magazine/dna-test-crime-identification-genome.html
Murder convictions and serial rapists going to jail, i got no problem with, but that slippery slope exists. And from years of experience, im not inclined to give the authorities my data, even by proxy. The abuse potential is immense and history is not on the average citizens side.
multiple family members of mine bought 23andme kits, so the company has my data as well. even though I wanted nothing to do with them.
There are no repeat customers and it was destined to be sold to the highest bidder.
I didn’t even think of this, but very glad I didn’t submit either.
I had my sample destroyed the day they went public.
*you hope
They seem trustworthy. /s
Lol, sure you did.
People are morons for doing these things and expecting any privacy.
23andMe has a “request data deletion” feature. I don’t know if it actually works, but it’s worth a try if you’re worried about it.
Yep, I had my data deleted. They told me so, but I don’t for a second believe it.
deleted by creator
I assume that all of that is dishonest.
i was really close to using this service.
then they got hacked. so i waited.
now this makes me glad that i waited.
Anyone who used these DNA analysis services were idiots to begin with.
There was no way in hell that valuable genetic data would ever stay private with no commercial or police access.
Sadly my grandpa did it before dying so some of my information is in there.
I was never so fucking stupid as to give my DNA to them.
Nope, I never did
But you can’t control what your family does.
Honestly terrifying. Once that info is out there, who knows what could happen.
Will insurance use it to see if you’re pre-disposed to something and charge more?
Will a fascist group use it to find groups they think are undesirable? What if there’s a genetic component or predisposition to being gay/trans?
Will future terrorists or governments use it to engineer a virus that only affects a group of people? Assasinate an enemy and their entire family?
You should probably just assume that your genetic information is already or will be out there at some point. If you want to protect against how it could be used against you, my suggestion would be to change your last name from a genetically-based one to one chosen by you. It isn’t foolproof since the name change is public record, but it creates a firewall that makes it harder.
That’s why I changed my legal name to “Marijuana Plant Johnson”
Too unique for a name database. Just change your last name to Nguyen or Chan. Throw off the scent.
Mohammed Nguyen it is
Ugh paywall.
I’m not a fan of being paranoid.
Yes because people who are paranoid schizophrenia were all such a fan of it. Wonderful prognosis of how mental health works.
