4 ms·

this has nothing to do with being correct. there's a rush by law enforcement to create a DNA database. and if you did at a clinic or 23and me et al, be sure t

by gcb0 7y ago

this has nothing to do with being correct. there's a rush by law enforcement to create a DNA database. and if you did at a clinic or 23and me et al, be sure that your dna plus some metadata (if not from you, from your payment or from the lab, anything that goes around hippa is game) is already cataloged there. couple months ago a newspaper shown how cheap private investigators paid for this data to narrow down location of people they were paid to locate.

drenvuk 7y ago
Sometimes I feel like I'm too paranoid but then these things keep happening that seemed like they would happen years ago which uselessly vindicates my position. Is there some critical threshold where they have enough DNA data to track everyone not in the database? Maybe any amount is helpful since it narrows a pool down. Why do people keep giving out their information so freely?
- rexpop 7y ago
  We don't believe it could happen here.
- runlevel1 7y ago
  The recent use of DNA-based ancestry sites' genealogical data to solve cold cases would suggest we're not far off. [1]: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2167554-serial-killer-suspect-identified-using-dna-family-tree-website/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2167554-serial-killer-s... [2]: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/9kpnnz/linda-ann-okeefe-murder-suspect-arrest-dna https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/9kpnnz/linda-ann-okee... [3]: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/19/maine-man-accused-killing-young-woman-alaska-years-ago/auNFXwgMAsXMmwGGzDLY4H/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/19/maine-man-accus...
  - astura 7y ago
    For white people, at least. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/golden-state-killer-genealogy/572545/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/golden-s... > Then the researchers built a model that predicted that a database needs to include only 2 percent of a population for 90 percent of the people to have a third-cousin match or closer in it. In other words, a database of just a few million people could be sufficient to track down nearly everyone in the United States....Another pattern jumped out in the MyHeritage data: People of primarily northern European ancestry were more likely to have matches than people of primarily sub-Saharan ancestry. This reflects the predominantly white customer base for MyHeritage and most other direct-to-consumer DNA tests. It also means that genetic-genealogy searches by law enforcement are, for now, more likely to succeed with people of European descent. These sorts of identifications actually require a lot of manual work by genetic genealogists tracing ancestry after a potential relative is found in a DNA database. For example, Barbara Rae-Venter lead a team of five people to identify the Golden State Killer. BTW, there's a handy Wikipedia page for a list of suspects identified using the GEDMatch database https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suspected_perpetrators_of_crimes_identified_with_GEDmatch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suspected_perpetrators...
toss1 7y ago
> there's a rush by law enforcement to create a DNA database. True, But this has nothing to do with that (at least at this point). TFA specifically stated that no data would be retained, they are just looking for results in 90 minutes, evidently to verify if someone claims parenthood of a child, they really are the parent. If it is actually used to make human trafficing more difficult, it is a good thing. (Don't ask me whether I trust this administration to do anything good, for the right reasons, within reasonable bounds, with proper controls, or merely act with sanity and respect -- that is a whole other conversation likely unsuitable for this forum)
- savethefuture 7y ago
  >(at least at this point) Everything is incremental
- mindslight 7y ago
  "If <policy> makes <bad thing> harder, it is a good thing" is the wax on the runners of the sled flying down the slippery slope. It's fallacious to frame handing more power to centralizing entities solely in terms of the good they may (possibly) do. There are always downsides, even in addition to direct misuse - eg 1000 lifetimes lost every year to the TSA alone. It's always a trade off, and politics (aka willful ignorance) practically guarantees it won't be made for the right reasons.
  - toss1 7y ago
    True. Which is why I put the disclaimers in the last two paragraphs ("If it is actually used" and "Don't ... trust this administration...") The restricting scope, application purpose, and effective oversight are the anchor points and crampons that enable us to not slide down the slippery slope, but get to the top.
- Rebelgecko 7y ago
  I don't think it will make enough of a difference to justify the totalitarian aspects. I imagine relatives are already complicit in a decent amount of human trafficking cases.
jl2718 7y ago
Is there a way to get them to delete your data?
Fjolsvith 7y ago
This is the slippery slope that started with the idea of DNA testing criminals only.

by gcb0 7y ago

drenvuk 7y ago

Sometimes I feel like I'm too paranoid but then these things keep happening that seemed like they would happen years ago which uselessly vindicates my position. Is there some critical threshold where they have enough DNA data to track everyone not in the database? Maybe any amount is helpful since it narrows a pool down. Why do people keep giving out their information so freely?

rexpop 7y ago
We don't believe it could happen here.
runlevel1 7y ago
The recent use of DNA-based ancestry sites' genealogical data to solve cold cases would suggest we're not far off. [1]: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2167554-serial-killer-suspect-identified-using-dna-family-tree-website/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2167554-serial-killer-s... [2]: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/9kpnnz/linda-ann-okeefe-murder-suspect-arrest-dna https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/9kpnnz/linda-ann-okee... [3]: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/19/maine-man-accused-killing-young-woman-alaska-years-ago/auNFXwgMAsXMmwGGzDLY4H/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/19/maine-man-accus...
- astura 7y ago
  For white people, at least. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/golden-state-killer-genealogy/572545/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/golden-s... > Then the researchers built a model that predicted that a database needs to include only 2 percent of a population for 90 percent of the people to have a third-cousin match or closer in it. In other words, a database of just a few million people could be sufficient to track down nearly everyone in the United States....Another pattern jumped out in the MyHeritage data: People of primarily northern European ancestry were more likely to have matches than people of primarily sub-Saharan ancestry. This reflects the predominantly white customer base for MyHeritage and most other direct-to-consumer DNA tests. It also means that genetic-genealogy searches by law enforcement are, for now, more likely to succeed with people of European descent. These sorts of identifications actually require a lot of manual work by genetic genealogists tracing ancestry after a potential relative is found in a DNA database. For example, Barbara Rae-Venter lead a team of five people to identify the Golden State Killer. BTW, there's a handy Wikipedia page for a list of suspects identified using the GEDMatch database https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suspected_perpetrators_of_crimes_identified_with_GEDmatch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suspected_perpetrators...

toss1 7y ago

> there's a rush by law enforcement to create a DNA database. True, But this has nothing to do with that (at least at this point). TFA specifically stated that no data would be retained, they are just looking for results in 90 minutes, evidently to verify if someone claims parenthood of a child, they really are the parent. If it is actually used to make human trafficing more difficult, it is a good thing. (Don't ask me whether I trust this administration to do anything good, for the right reasons, within reasonable bounds, with proper controls, or merely act with sanity and respect -- that is a whole other conversation likely unsuitable for this forum)

savethefuture 7y ago
>(at least at this point) Everything is incremental
mindslight 7y ago
"If <policy> makes <bad thing> harder, it is a good thing" is the wax on the runners of the sled flying down the slippery slope. It's fallacious to frame handing more power to centralizing entities solely in terms of the good they may (possibly) do. There are always downsides, even in addition to direct misuse - eg 1000 lifetimes lost every year to the TSA alone. It's always a trade off, and politics (aka willful ignorance) practically guarantees it won't be made for the right reasons.
- toss1 7y ago
  True. Which is why I put the disclaimers in the last two paragraphs ("If it is actually used" and "Don't ... trust this administration...") The restricting scope, application purpose, and effective oversight are the anchor points and crampons that enable us to not slide down the slippery slope, but get to the top.
Rebelgecko 7y ago
I don't think it will make enough of a difference to justify the totalitarian aspects. I imagine relatives are already complicit in a decent amount of human trafficking cases.

jl2718 7y ago

Is there a way to get them to delete your data?

Fjolsvith 7y ago

This is the slippery slope that started with the idea of DNA testing criminals only.