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Unfortunately, you would have to live in a plastic bubble to make that possible. You probably shed many petabases of your DNA every day. Your DNA is no more pri

Unfortunately, you would have to live in a plastic bubble to make that possible. You probably shed many petabases of your DNA every day. Your DNA is no more private than your face. The best you can do of you don't want to reveal it is to never leave the house. Also, don't have family, relatives, or members of the same species to reveal your secret...

tylersmith 8y ago
Yeah trying to keep DNA private is a losing cause. You're constantly leaving your DNA laying around. How long until the average phone is capable of scanning for DNA on any random surface? I'd bet not as long as we'd like. And the fact that you share so much of it with your family just compounds the problem with trying to keep DNA a secret. I'd like my DNA to remain private but it's less realistic than keeping even your fingerprints private.
- mosdave 8y ago
  > How long until the average phone is capable of scanning for DNA on any random surface? I'd bet not as long as we'd like. PCR in a phone? How novel. This sort of nonsense belongs over at /r/futurology.
  - tylersmith 8y ago
    Why is that? I must have missed that rule.
Gatsky 8y ago
This is unnecessarily paranoid. It would take a concerted effort to obtain a good quality and sufficiently pure DNA sample from a person's ambient DNA. In the mythical scenario that someone wanted to get your whole genome sequence without you realising, they would need to collect many ambient samples (the gum you just threw in the bin, swabs of handles and keypads that you just touched, hair samples) and perform whole genome sequencing, which would cost multiple thousands of dollars. 23andMe's crappy SNP test is useless on a sample that could be contaminated with other human DNA.
- rootusrootus 8y ago
  Full sequencing is under a thousand bucks now and has even been on sale once for $200. Another year or so and I bet you will be able to have it done for less than $100
  - Gatsky 8y ago
    My point is you would need to sequence multiple samples for the same person, and with contaminated DNA you need higher read depth which costs more. If you want to say that the person who spat out the piece of gum you sequenced is female and European, yeah you can probably do that for $200.
  - btilly 8y ago
    Do you have a source? My understanding is that what 23andme et al do is very far from actual full sequencing.
    - dekhn 8y ago
      you can get 30X at $800 from at least one provider but that's not saying much, I think most people would prefer higher depth for accurate variant calling.
      - btilly 8y ago
        I am following this with interest. I have some variant of Marfan's syndrome but have not shown the associated heart problems. After consultation with a geneticist we concluded that I could spend a bunch of money to get the exact variant that I have of the relevant genes sequenced. But almost certainly I would learn that I have some variant of Marfan's syndrome that is not understood. Relatives who also have the same phenotype can get sequenced to verify that it is genetic. But since none of us are showing the most troublesome problems, and the literature almost certainly doesn't have our exact variation, I would learn nothing more than I know already. So just get an MRI every 5 years, and wait for costs to come down and research to improve. In 10-15 years look again and maybe the genetic test will be useful then. For a genetic condition as specific as mine, the sequencing done by these commercial providers is useless.
JudgeWapner 8y ago
> to reveal it is to never leave the house and don't throw away/flush any biological material. in most jurisdictions, trash is public property. if someone really wants your DNA they can hunt through your garbage till they find a hair, flesh, blood, etc.

tylersmith 8y ago

Yeah trying to keep DNA private is a losing cause. You're constantly leaving your DNA laying around. How long until the average phone is capable of scanning for DNA on any random surface? I'd bet not as long as we'd like. And the fact that you share so much of it with your family just compounds the problem with trying to keep DNA a secret. I'd like my DNA to remain private but it's less realistic than keeping even your fingerprints private.

mosdave 8y ago
> How long until the average phone is capable of scanning for DNA on any random surface? I'd bet not as long as we'd like. PCR in a phone? How novel. This sort of nonsense belongs over at /r/futurology.
- tylersmith 8y ago
  Why is that? I must have missed that rule.

Gatsky 8y ago

This is unnecessarily paranoid. It would take a concerted effort to obtain a good quality and sufficiently pure DNA sample from a person's ambient DNA. In the mythical scenario that someone wanted to get your whole genome sequence without you realising, they would need to collect many ambient samples (the gum you just threw in the bin, swabs of handles and keypads that you just touched, hair samples) and perform whole genome sequencing, which would cost multiple thousands of dollars. 23andMe's crappy SNP test is useless on a sample that could be contaminated with other human DNA.

rootusrootus 8y ago
Full sequencing is under a thousand bucks now and has even been on sale once for $200. Another year or so and I bet you will be able to have it done for less than $100
- Gatsky 8y ago
  My point is you would need to sequence multiple samples for the same person, and with contaminated DNA you need higher read depth which costs more. If you want to say that the person who spat out the piece of gum you sequenced is female and European, yeah you can probably do that for $200.
- btilly 8y ago
  Do you have a source? My understanding is that what 23andme et al do is very far from actual full sequencing.
  - dekhn 8y ago
    you can get 30X at $800 from at least one provider but that's not saying much, I think most people would prefer higher depth for accurate variant calling.
    - btilly 8y ago
      I am following this with interest. I have some variant of Marfan's syndrome but have not shown the associated heart problems. After consultation with a geneticist we concluded that I could spend a bunch of money to get the exact variant that I have of the relevant genes sequenced. But almost certainly I would learn that I have some variant of Marfan's syndrome that is not understood. Relatives who also have the same phenotype can get sequenced to verify that it is genetic. But since none of us are showing the most troublesome problems, and the literature almost certainly doesn't have our exact variation, I would learn nothing more than I know already. So just get an MRI every 5 years, and wait for costs to come down and research to improve. In 10-15 years look again and maybe the genetic test will be useful then. For a genetic condition as specific as mine, the sequencing done by these commercial providers is useless.

JudgeWapner 8y ago

> to reveal it is to never leave the house and don't throw away/flush any biological material. in most jurisdictions, trash is public property. if someone really wants your DNA they can hunt through your garbage till they find a hair, flesh, blood, etc.