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That the United Stated are a scary place and that you can't trust ancestry.com and ancestryDNA. They will take your DNA samples and put it in a big database to

That the United Stated are a scary place and that you can't trust ancestry.com and ancestryDNA. They will take your DNA samples and put it in a big database to be crunched and analyzed and used for their own marketing. May be used by current or future government for whatever nefarious purpose, or hacked and stolen or sold for profit.

saiya-jin 10y ago
east-german secret service stasi had this technique for up to 5 millions of their own citizens, in form of some smellable clothing sealed in jar so that trained hounds can track you.
- slau 10y ago
  Don't know why this was marked as dead, so I vouched for it. If it is inaccurate, please provide counter arguments and documentation indicating otherwise.
- oblio 10y ago
  (rant) I'm not saying you're wrong and I agree that these companies will use the info for their personal gain. But I do have a question for anyone watching: why are Americans so paranoid about falling under a authoritarian regime? Europeans aren't as afraid of it and every European country has at one point or another been ruled by a dictator. The US has never been yet the vast majority of comments by Americans seems to indicate a deep distrust of their own government, to the point where half the country would almost get rid of it (Republicans). There's a very thick line between a slightly abusive and malfunctioning government and full blown dictatorship. And that line is not that easy to cross as it may seem if the country's citizens don't want it. Heck, my country, Romania, who had a very fragile democracy across the years, only succumbed to dictatorship under massive external pressure - including military pressure - from the Nazis and the Communists. If little ol' Romania, with a very uneducated populace yet willing to fight for its democracy sort of held on for 100 years out of the 160 since its formation, surely the US would be more resilient, without half its citizens becoming paranoid? (end-of-rant)
  - eriknstr 10y ago
    "The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." In the US, the idea of freedom is valued highly. I am not from the US, and I don't live there, but I agree with them that freedom is worth fighting for. Much of the government in both the US and many other countries are becoming more authoritarian with new technology allowing them greater possibilities of surveillance, even though there isn't a dictator.
    - nkristoffersen 10y ago
      the idea (or name) of freedom is valued highly here in the US of A. But, for the average American, I don't think "freedom" means what they think it means...
  - bitexploder 10y ago
    Technology may completely eliminate the lines altogether. Privacy is extremely leaky now. I just can't believe it is a thick line, or at least, I won rest on it being true. Quality of life in quasi-authoritarian governments is lower. Technology changes much and I would rather be the individual who was careful and asked everyone to be a little paranoid. Look at how poorly supposedly free governments react to cryptography.
  - yourapostasy 10y ago
    It wasn't always this way, according to this in-depth polling analysis by Pew [1]. Interesting cross-country polling seems to suggest distrust in government is loosely linked to distrust in others, and linked to inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient; there might be a social cohesion metric buried somewhere in those findings [2]. [1] http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-americans-view-their-government/ http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-a... [2] https://ourworldindata.org/trust#cross-country-surveys https://ourworldindata.org/trust#cross-country-surveys
  - jfoutz 10y ago
    Rome. When congress is powerless for years, and bad things start happening, congress will give all of its power to the executive branch, and be cheered for doing so. Phase two is the executive selecting their own successor. I don't think Rome was ever a brutal dictatorship, but it turned into something like a monarchy. It's not a thing that'll happen today, or perhaps even in five hundred years, but that's the historical flight plan. We're obviously structured for the executive branch to soak up all the power, eventually. (at least it has so far) The executive branch has pretty much completely taken the power of declaring war. Congress can't really pass a budget any more. i kinda think in the next 50 years they'll give up that power and just rubber stamp whatever the executive throws at them.

saiya-jin 10y ago

east-german secret service stasi had this technique for up to 5 millions of their own citizens, in form of some smellable clothing sealed in jar so that trained hounds can track you.

slau 10y ago
Don't know why this was marked as dead, so I vouched for it. If it is inaccurate, please provide counter arguments and documentation indicating otherwise.
oblio 10y ago
(rant) I'm not saying you're wrong and I agree that these companies will use the info for their personal gain. But I do have a question for anyone watching: why are Americans so paranoid about falling under a authoritarian regime? Europeans aren't as afraid of it and every European country has at one point or another been ruled by a dictator. The US has never been yet the vast majority of comments by Americans seems to indicate a deep distrust of their own government, to the point where half the country would almost get rid of it (Republicans). There's a very thick line between a slightly abusive and malfunctioning government and full blown dictatorship. And that line is not that easy to cross as it may seem if the country's citizens don't want it. Heck, my country, Romania, who had a very fragile democracy across the years, only succumbed to dictatorship under massive external pressure - including military pressure - from the Nazis and the Communists. If little ol' Romania, with a very uneducated populace yet willing to fight for its democracy sort of held on for 100 years out of the 160 since its formation, surely the US would be more resilient, without half its citizens becoming paranoid? (end-of-rant)
- eriknstr 10y ago
  "The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." In the US, the idea of freedom is valued highly. I am not from the US, and I don't live there, but I agree with them that freedom is worth fighting for. Much of the government in both the US and many other countries are becoming more authoritarian with new technology allowing them greater possibilities of surveillance, even though there isn't a dictator.
  - nkristoffersen 10y ago
    the idea (or name) of freedom is valued highly here in the US of A. But, for the average American, I don't think "freedom" means what they think it means...
- bitexploder 10y ago
  Technology may completely eliminate the lines altogether. Privacy is extremely leaky now. I just can't believe it is a thick line, or at least, I won rest on it being true. Quality of life in quasi-authoritarian governments is lower. Technology changes much and I would rather be the individual who was careful and asked everyone to be a little paranoid. Look at how poorly supposedly free governments react to cryptography.
- yourapostasy 10y ago
  It wasn't always this way, according to this in-depth polling analysis by Pew [1]. Interesting cross-country polling seems to suggest distrust in government is loosely linked to distrust in others, and linked to inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient; there might be a social cohesion metric buried somewhere in those findings [2]. [1] http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-americans-view-their-government/ http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-a... [2] https://ourworldindata.org/trust#cross-country-surveys https://ourworldindata.org/trust#cross-country-surveys
- jfoutz 10y ago
  Rome. When congress is powerless for years, and bad things start happening, congress will give all of its power to the executive branch, and be cheered for doing so. Phase two is the executive selecting their own successor. I don't think Rome was ever a brutal dictatorship, but it turned into something like a monarchy. It's not a thing that'll happen today, or perhaps even in five hundred years, but that's the historical flight plan. We're obviously structured for the executive branch to soak up all the power, eventually. (at least it has so far) The executive branch has pretty much completely taken the power of declaring war. Congress can't really pass a budget any more. i kinda think in the next 50 years they'll give up that power and just rubber stamp whatever the executive throws at them.