5 ms·
In terms of medical data the amount of leakage is somewhat limited by the nature of DNA, e.g because you get a random mix you can't conclude anything about pare
by ig1 6y ago
In terms of medical data the amount of leakage is somewhat limited by the nature of DNA, e.g because you get a random mix you can't conclude anything about parents, etc medical status.
By far the biggest practical knock-on effect is if you match someone who's doesn't know their parentage (adoption/illegitimate children/etc) who can figure out their parentage as a result of that match.
Familial DNA crime searches are probably the next biggest, but they're still very rare at the moment and many of the DNA platforms don't allow them (GEDMatch was one of the few that do).
- haihaibye 6y agoIf a child has 2 copies of a variant you know both parents have at least 1 copy. You know what parent a male's X and Y came from. You can use phasing and linkage to reconstruct parental haplotypes.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> You know what parent a male's X and Y came from. You can identify which parent any chromosome came from. They're all marked, and the same genetics may do sharply different things depending on whether it was inherited from the father or the mother. Inability to recover this data has nothing to do with "the nature of DNA" -- the data is very much present in the DNA. It's unrecoverable because when we summarize DNA, we leave it out.
- drdeca 6y ago> You can identify which parent any chromosome came from. They're all marked, and the same genetics may do sharply different things depending on whether it was inherited from the father or the mother. I did not know this. This sounds interesting! Can you provide any google search terms (or a link) where I can read more about this? (e.g. a name of what they are marked with) This surprises me. I thought that there was a process by which portions of the two copies of a chromosome get switched between the two. Is that right? How does that fit together with these markings? (If these questions would be answered by searching for whatever search term or reading whatever link you provide, I would consider providing said search term or link to be answering these questions)
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> Can you provide any google search terms (or a link) where I can read more about this? (e.g. a name of what they are marked with) The term I know related to this is "methylation". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_methylation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_methylation . I don't know all that much about it; I would not want to claim that methylation is the only such mechanism, or that this is the only information expressed by DNA methylation. > I thought that there was a process by which portions of the two copies of a chromosome get switched between the two. Is that right? How does that fit together with these markings? Yes, that's correct. "Crossing over" does not occur during ordinary cell division ("mitosis"), in which one of your cells divides into two of your cells -- your chromosomes should stay the same (except for new mutations) through your life. But it does occur during meiosis, the process by which one of your cells divides into four sperm or four eggs (these are "gametes", and in terms of chromosome content they are only half-cells, not full cells). Your children's chromosomes may therefore differ from yours. So the interaction between parental marking and crossing over would broadly look like: 1. You are going to produce four gametes. 2. Remove the parental marking (indicating the sex of the gamete's grandparent) from the cell undergoing meiosis. 3. Do the crossing over. 4. Apply parental marking indicating your own sex (the gamete's parent, rather than grandparent). 5. Divide into four cells. I don't actually know where the unmarking and remarking occur in the process; maybe reality is more like 2435, or 3254. But both crossing over and applying correct parental marking are part of meiosis -- since meiosis produces a cell that belongs to your child rather than a cell that belongs to you, it's easy to know what kind of marking should be applied.
- drdeca 6y agoAhhh, cool, thank you! That makes sense now, thanks!
- ig1 6y agoYes, but there's generally not much medical data you can infer from those. You're right that you could reconstruct parental haplotypes, but that reveals a fairly limited amount of data, typically you'll share haplotypes with many millions of people.
- mberger 6y agoYes, but there's generally not much medical data you can infer from those. Not yet.
- dwighttk 6y ago> and many of the DNA platforms don't allow them I’m assuming that the stolen information doesn’t have this limitation.
- madaxe_again 6y agoI’m cackling at the idea of GDPR compliant data thieves. “This data is only to be used for the purposes of: anything. The data controller is: whoever.”
- ig1 6y agoMost law enforcement typically use a handful of commercial agencies (like Parabon NanoLabs, etc) for these kind of searches, it seems highly unlikely that any of them would risk using illegally obtained data because it would put their entire business at risk. (obviously if your threat model includes intelligence agencies, etc. then your calculus might be different)
- jacquesm 6y agoAnd of course law enforcement has never before used illegally obtained evidence to construct a new trail that was plausible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction
- ig1 6y agoIt's not about law enforcement using the data, it's about the viability of running a business that provides illegal hacking services for law enforcement.
- JetSpiegel 6y agoWorks for Hacking Team and NSO.
- monadic2 6y agoHonestly all I see is upside for the business.
- stepstop 6y agoIt’s not only medical data that’s of concern, but also nation states Could try to use the data to identify embedded foreign agents/spies implanted in their country. Those are the ones without diplomatic cover
- Dumblydorr 6y agoWhat would insurance companies do with the data though? If they knew you were predisposed to obesity and cancer due to this data, would they be kind enough to ignore that info?
- toomuchtodo 6y agoFederal law prohibits health insurers from using DNA data for underwriting and pricing.
- astura 6y agoAnd if it didn't the insurance companies could just demand a dna test before underwriting any policies.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoIt would be a sound business decision (who takes on unnecessary risk or costs willingly?), and yet another reason to support universal healthcare.
- kube-system 6y agoIf we’re hypothetically considering what they could do if they weren’t one of the most regulated industries, they have exponentially better options for limiting their risk than requesting DNA.