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The only reasonable way of achieving those goals would be to allow totally anonymous submissions. Mail in a sample and simply have a code that you keep to check
by _red 8y ago
The only reasonable way of achieving those goals would be to allow totally anonymous submissions. Mail in a sample and simply have a code that you keep to check on results once they are processed.
The fact that none of these services allow for anonymous submission should be a huge tell about their real motivations.
- inetknght 8y ago> none of these services allow for anonymous submission You're incorrect. At the company I work for, which is one of them mentioned in the article, a customer pays for DNA sequencing and analysis. Who pays for it is often separate from who's being analysed. We often have customers who pay for products for their family, friends, or otherwise. The name on the DNA sample is not verified in any way shape or form (and how could we verify it beyond just billing information?) You can opt-in or opt-out of public matching. You can download your raw data anyway (GDPR requires this if you're an EU citizen). > should be a huge tell about their real motivations I would like it if you'd elaborate on this.
- Cpoll 8y ago> I would like it if you'd elaborate on this. I don't have an opinion about this, but they're probably implying that the business model is the same as Google, Facebook, et. al., which is selling user data to third parties.
- drugme 8y agoThat would help, to a degree. But ultimately any kind of DNA analysis (that exposes the raw data) is intrinsically de-anonymizable, no?
- erentz 8y agoAnonymous submissions are in theory somewhat feasible, albeit cumbersome. You can by the 23andme kits with the full fee paid from certain pharmacies (I think Target had them) using cash. This means you don't have to put down a credit card when signing up. I leave the rest to the reader to work out wrt anonymizing themselves while signing up to the website.
- jellicle 8y agoErr, isn't the first thing they do is link up the new submission with every other submission ever received in the past or future, almost none of which are anonymous? Sure, you can be anonymous, but you're the son of John and Jane Tompkins, the brother of Emily Tompkins, the cousin of Mary Smith, and the father of Dave and Buster Tompkins.... huh, I wonder who you are.
- erentz 8y agoVery good point. Added requirement: Make sure all your ancestors and extended family are dead and did not do 23andme before their passing.
- web007 8y agoUnless things have changed, this is exactly how 23AndMe works. You get a kit and send it in, then you just have an ID number that ties that kit back to you for setting up your account.
- SubiculumCode 8y agoThat might work until you have relatives who did not do it anonymously...then you get outed by the DNA istelf. A service that destroyed your sample and record after processing would help in this regard.
- hannasanarion 8y ago23andme does destroy your samples, and the genotype tests are not very useful for determining paternity.
- DoctorOetker 8y agoThat would also help against the (hypothetical?) possibility that data mining sector creates "DNA testing" front companies, which do no testing whatsoever, and simply sell you a pretty printed conclusion from your cyber profile... without oversight anything goes
- astura 8y agoThat would fall under "unfair and deceptive business practices" which there are laws against.
- DoctorOetker 8y agoobviously, but a law alone can only protect you when the deception is detected. the proposal to somehow fully anonymously (so somehow also not through the usual mail system) submit the material and code would be a preventive measure