5 ms·

Can't we just refer to people as a hash of their DNA.. And forget about identical twins.

by purplethinking 8y ago

andrelaszlo 8y ago
"Falsehoods Programmers Believe About DNA"
- db48x 8y ago
  Yea, there's at least two in there already.
  - eesmith 8y ago
    "Lydia Fairchild is an American woman who exhibits chimerism, in having two distinct populations of DNA among the cells of her body." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild
    - DoreenMichele 8y ago
      Microchemerism more common than previously believed: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/science/a-pregnancy-souvenir-cells-that-are-not-your-own.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/science/a-pregnancy-souve... TLDR: Having a baby tends to leave you with DNA from the baby distributed throughout your body.
Piskvorrr 8y ago
And entry errors, and matching errors, and misassigned records, and yeah, let's just have [Jedi handwave] a perfect identification system. Hey look, no more problems!
DoreenMichele 8y ago
Some percentage of people have a different dad than they or the world thinks. Some are adopted and don't know it. Some have genetic disorders they don't wish to publicly disclose. Methinks this goes from frying pan to fire.
- nradov 8y ago
  A cryptographic hash of a person's DNA sequence wouldn't reveal any of that data.
  - db48x 8y ago
    Your DNA is not constant (it changes over time), and not everybody has just one DNA sequence (chimerism).
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    My bad. I forgot: There is no such thing as a security breach. /s
    - nradov 8y ago
      Cryptographic hashing algorithms are one way. A breach which gave an attacker access to a hash of your genome wouldn't reveal anything about you, not even your species.
      - DoreenMichele 8y ago
        I think the original comment was intended humorously, so it is probably pointless to argue this in earnest, but I did used to write HIPAA violation letters as one part of my job when I worked in insurance. So I am familiar with myriad ways that information can get leaked. It doesn't always involve someone intentionally attacking your data. The letters I wrote were very frequently due to situations like "Your dad/brother/cousin who lives in the same house/on the same street/in the same town and whose name is weirdly similar to yours and they happen to also have a policy with us happened to get your check/letter by accident because we got you two mixed up (sometimes: Again!)." Not that we could word our letters that way. We couldn't. But that was a surprisingly common scenario. So, color me skeptical that a cryptographic hashing algorithm somehow magically solves this and ensures that no breaches happen ever. And that may seem like no big deal if it is the occasional individual scenario and you are sure it can't happen en masse, but such information can be simply devastating when it comes out, such as this case: https://www.vox.com/2014/9/9/5975653/with-genetic-testing-i-gave-my-parents-the-gift-of-divorce-23andme https://www.vox.com/2014/9/9/5975653/with-genetic-testing-i-... Anyway, that's kind of my line of thinking, which may be a case of "I am short of sleep and taking a one line joke way too seriously."

Can't we just refer to people as a hash of their DNA.. And forget about identical twins.

andrelaszlo 8y ago

"Falsehoods Programmers Believe About DNA"

db48x 8y ago
Yea, there's at least two in there already.
- eesmith 8y ago
  "Lydia Fairchild is an American woman who exhibits chimerism, in having two distinct populations of DNA among the cells of her body." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    Microchemerism more common than previously believed: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/science/a-pregnancy-souvenir-cells-that-are-not-your-own.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/science/a-pregnancy-souve... TLDR: Having a baby tends to leave you with DNA from the baby distributed throughout your body.

Piskvorrr 8y ago

And entry errors, and matching errors, and misassigned records, and yeah, let's just have [Jedi handwave] a perfect identification system. Hey look, no more problems!

DoreenMichele 8y ago

Some percentage of people have a different dad than they or the world thinks. Some are adopted and don't know it. Some have genetic disorders they don't wish to publicly disclose. Methinks this goes from frying pan to fire.

nradov 8y ago
A cryptographic hash of a person's DNA sequence wouldn't reveal any of that data.
- db48x 8y ago
  Your DNA is not constant (it changes over time), and not everybody has just one DNA sequence (chimerism).
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  My bad. I forgot: There is no such thing as a security breach. /s
  - nradov 8y ago
    Cryptographic hashing algorithms are one way. A breach which gave an attacker access to a hash of your genome wouldn't reveal anything about you, not even your species.
    - DoreenMichele 8y ago
      I think the original comment was intended humorously, so it is probably pointless to argue this in earnest, but I did used to write HIPAA violation letters as one part of my job when I worked in insurance. So I am familiar with myriad ways that information can get leaked. It doesn't always involve someone intentionally attacking your data. The letters I wrote were very frequently due to situations like "Your dad/brother/cousin who lives in the same house/on the same street/in the same town and whose name is weirdly similar to yours and they happen to also have a policy with us happened to get your check/letter by accident because we got you two mixed up (sometimes: Again!)." Not that we could word our letters that way. We couldn't. But that was a surprisingly common scenario. So, color me skeptical that a cryptographic hashing algorithm somehow magically solves this and ensures that no breaches happen ever. And that may seem like no big deal if it is the occasional individual scenario and you are sure it can't happen en masse, but such information can be simply devastating when it comes out, such as this case: https://www.vox.com/2014/9/9/5975653/with-genetic-testing-i-gave-my-parents-the-gift-of-divorce-23andme https://www.vox.com/2014/9/9/5975653/with-genetic-testing-i-... Anyway, that's kind of my line of thinking, which may be a case of "I am short of sleep and taking a one line joke way too seriously."