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If you read the article you'll note that the key problem is not what the author did, it's what her relatives did - uploading their own DNA. It is trivial to dis

If you read the article you'll note that the key problem is not what the author did, it's what her relatives did - uploading their own DNA. It is trivial to discover relatives by DNA match, so using a set of DNA samples you can easily construct a social graph based on family relations. If you can then identify any point in that graph, you can identify individuals. The countermeasures therefore consist of things like: 1) don't add your DNA to a database and 2) Don't allow your family to add their DNA to a database.

3JPLW 8y ago
But a fake entry in the database would result in a negative match. Thus the researcher would (at least at first) eliminate you as a possible candidate. Of course, uploading fake DNA with your real name would have other implications — your relatives that upload their own DNA and look for matches might suspect infidelity on the part of your parents... and relatives of the "fake DNA" might think the same of their father/grandfather/etc.
- astazangasta 8y ago
  Anonymously submitting someone else's DNA would obviously leave you safe from being identified.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- bilbo0s 8y ago
  That's the sort of thing a detective would work out relatively quickly though. If you share none of your mother's DNA, the only possible explanation would be adoption. And if your mother, for whatever reason, told the detective you were not adopted. Then that detective would have their suspect. So if you tried that, the stranger would have to be a very carefully selected family member in any case. Someone from your mother's side, same gender, not likely to submit his/her DNA, AND not likely to be in DNA databases already due to prior arrests. (Also, it goes without saying that they can't be adopted.) But even taking all these precautions, I'm pretty sure a detective would still work it all out.
  - bradyd 8y ago
    > If you share none of your mother's DNA, the only possible explanation would be adoption. Not necessarily. There was a case where a DNA test of a woman's children showed that they did not share any of her DNA. Social Services was threatening to take them away from her. When she had another child, they court ordered an officer to be present during the birth and collect DNA from both of them at that time. Even still the DNA "proved" she was not the mother. It was only after another similar case was discovered that they were able to determine that she was a chimera, basically that she was her own twin, and had two different DNA strands. https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/shes-twin/story?id=2315693 https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/shes-twin/story?id=2315693
    - bilbo0s 8y ago
      Yeah, but if your mother is not a chimera, they're gonna nail you right out of the box unless the fake DNA comes from a member of your mother's side of the family.
tathougies 8y ago
> Don't allow your family to add their DNA to a database. IE, DNA is my personal property, hence, I own my family. Come off it. You cannot claim to be concerned about individual privacy when your recommendation for how to protect your privacy is to intimately examine your family member's actions and then actively attempt to prevent them from doing something that is -- according to your ethics -- their right.
- astazangasta 8y ago
  I didn't make a single ethical claim, I just suggested what needs doing if your goal is to remain unidentified by DNA. If it wasn't clear my reply was a bit tongue in cheek, since obviously you cannot control what your family does.

3JPLW 8y ago

But a fake entry in the database would result in a negative match. Thus the researcher would (at least at first) eliminate you as a possible candidate. Of course, uploading fake DNA with your real name would have other implications — your relatives that upload their own DNA and look for matches might suspect infidelity on the part of your parents... and relatives of the "fake DNA" might think the same of their father/grandfather/etc.

astazangasta 8y ago
Anonymously submitting someone else's DNA would obviously leave you safe from being identified.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
bilbo0s 8y ago
That's the sort of thing a detective would work out relatively quickly though. If you share none of your mother's DNA, the only possible explanation would be adoption. And if your mother, for whatever reason, told the detective you were not adopted. Then that detective would have their suspect. So if you tried that, the stranger would have to be a very carefully selected family member in any case. Someone from your mother's side, same gender, not likely to submit his/her DNA, AND not likely to be in DNA databases already due to prior arrests. (Also, it goes without saying that they can't be adopted.) But even taking all these precautions, I'm pretty sure a detective would still work it all out.
- bradyd 8y ago
  > If you share none of your mother's DNA, the only possible explanation would be adoption. Not necessarily. There was a case where a DNA test of a woman's children showed that they did not share any of her DNA. Social Services was threatening to take them away from her. When she had another child, they court ordered an officer to be present during the birth and collect DNA from both of them at that time. Even still the DNA "proved" she was not the mother. It was only after another similar case was discovered that they were able to determine that she was a chimera, basically that she was her own twin, and had two different DNA strands. https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/shes-twin/story?id=2315693 https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/shes-twin/story?id=2315693
  - bilbo0s 8y ago
    Yeah, but if your mother is not a chimera, they're gonna nail you right out of the box unless the fake DNA comes from a member of your mother's side of the family.

tathougies 8y ago

> Don't allow your family to add their DNA to a database. IE, DNA is my personal property, hence, I own my family. Come off it. You cannot claim to be concerned about individual privacy when your recommendation for how to protect your privacy is to intimately examine your family member's actions and then actively attempt to prevent them from doing something that is -- according to your ethics -- their right.

astazangasta 8y ago
I didn't make a single ethical claim, I just suggested what needs doing if your goal is to remain unidentified by DNA. If it wasn't clear my reply was a bit tongue in cheek, since obviously you cannot control what your family does.