3 ms·

There is absolutely no reason for these companies to collect your PII whatsoever. You should go to nearest pharmacy and buy sterile swab, swab yourself and writ

by dvh 2y ago

There is absolutely no reason for these companies to collect your PII whatsoever. You should go to nearest pharmacy and buy sterile swab, swab yourself and write long random number on it and send it. Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote.

ben_w 2y ago
> write long random number on it Human brains when generating 'random' numbers: https://xkcd.com/221/ https://xkcd.com/221/ > Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote. Given how much of our appearance is due to genetics, that's basically all the harm with none of the convenience.
- zahlman 2y ago
  >Human brains when generating 'random' numbers Fortunately, contemporary humans have access to computers, which can generate random numbers for them free of charge. >Given how much of our appearance is due to genetics, that's basically all the harm I can't fathom your concept of "harm"; and neither, I think, would any prospective customer of this service.
  - ben_w 2y ago
    > I can't fathom your concept of "harm"; and neither, I think, would any prospective customer of this service. I'm fairly relaxed about my medical history, but it's really obvious to me that I'm weird in being relaxed. Despite my relaxed attitude, it's still fairly obvious that this lists every genetic condition*, which in turn obviously going to be relevant to any health insurance provider that isn't banned from using it. Monetary damages are one of the easiest ones to quantify, from what I hear. * even those that have not yet had the relevant genes discovered, because statistical methods need a larger population
  - gklitz 2y ago
    What? “I’m worried my genetic sequence will be leaked and abused” turns into “why not just have the company leak the genetic sequences of everyone every month” and you can’t see the harm? At this point we practically have a single search engine that’ll take you genetic sequence aa input and return your face, you entire family tree, your current job and address and what you do in your free time.
stavros 2y ago
Or just create an account with a username and password and get the results there, like every other company does.
- psychlops 2y ago
  How would that avoid PII? One assumes there would need to be an email address to recover that account, and that would likely link to every single detail about the owner.
  - gklitz 2y ago
    If “the account” is just a random number, then what is there to recover?
    - cryptonector 2y ago
      The IPs you access the site from.
  - stavros 2y ago
    Throwaway email address?
LatteLazy 2y ago
This fixes the issue with leaks. But it creates a much worse issue: anyone can now sequence anyone else's DNA with zero oversight or privacy controls. The film Gattaca covers how this could lead to a sort of night are society pretty well, I highly recommend it. It also makes it much much harder to use the data for clinical research.
- gizmondo 2y ago
  What prevents anyone from sequencing anyone else's DNA with the current system?
  - red-iron-pine 2y ago
    aye. fake emails aren't hard to come across. create a fake username and ID, and then claim the sample is you or your kid.
  - duped 2y ago
    Nothing but terms and conditions of the website. That's how Paul Holes identified the Golden State Killer, he created a fake profile and sent in the DNA from a crime scene and worked backwards from the results to find a suspect.
- psychlops 2y ago
  Out of curiosity, how is this "much worse" than a breached honeypot of DNA information?
- nytesky 2y ago
  Great movie and I didn’t realize the title was composed of a nucleic acid sequence until like the 2020s!
- tylervigen 2y ago
  OK, you send the company two random numbers. One an ID, and the other a unique encryption key to encrypt the results.
gklitz 2y ago
Unless you are suggesting they publish the most PII there is, you should propably specify that the data they should publish should be aggregated non-identifying information next to the number, not the actual DNa strings.
TrainedMonkey 2y ago
Your genetic data is probably most accurate / valuable PII there is. Assuming multiple relatives use the service and at least one of them leaks online identity the whole jig is up. So the issue is not tying it to your online identity, but rather them keeping a resource which becomes more valuable as the time goes on. So why is that an issue... most obviously because of genetic predisposition. There is always a temptation to sell diseases you are predisposed to insurers (and maybe employers... ugh). After that you can imagine someone figuring that genetics affects any number of things (sugar / weight / addiction) and sell that to advertisers...
halyconWays 2y ago
Are you kidding? The CIA would never fund that and if such a company existed, the founder would probably end up going for a 130 MPH drive at 2 AM and getting in a crash that burned so hot nothing but ash remained.
beaugunderson 2y ago
It's relatively easy to go from genetic data to a surname, which is a big flaw in your described release method...

by dvh 2y ago

ben_w 2y ago

> write long random number on it Human brains when generating 'random' numbers: https://xkcd.com/221/ https://xkcd.com/221/ > Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote. Given how much of our appearance is due to genetics, that's basically all the harm with none of the convenience.

zahlman 2y ago
>Human brains when generating 'random' numbers Fortunately, contemporary humans have access to computers, which can generate random numbers for them free of charge. >Given how much of our appearance is due to genetics, that's basically all the harm I can't fathom your concept of "harm"; and neither, I think, would any prospective customer of this service.
- ben_w 2y ago
  > I can't fathom your concept of "harm"; and neither, I think, would any prospective customer of this service. I'm fairly relaxed about my medical history, but it's really obvious to me that I'm weird in being relaxed. Despite my relaxed attitude, it's still fairly obvious that this lists every genetic condition*, which in turn obviously going to be relevant to any health insurance provider that isn't banned from using it. Monetary damages are one of the easiest ones to quantify, from what I hear. * even those that have not yet had the relevant genes discovered, because statistical methods need a larger population
- gklitz 2y ago
  What? “I’m worried my genetic sequence will be leaked and abused” turns into “why not just have the company leak the genetic sequences of everyone every month” and you can’t see the harm? At this point we practically have a single search engine that’ll take you genetic sequence aa input and return your face, you entire family tree, your current job and address and what you do in your free time.

stavros 2y ago

Or just create an account with a username and password and get the results there, like every other company does.

psychlops 2y ago
How would that avoid PII? One assumes there would need to be an email address to recover that account, and that would likely link to every single detail about the owner.
- gklitz 2y ago
  If “the account” is just a random number, then what is there to recover?
  - cryptonector 2y ago
    The IPs you access the site from.
- stavros 2y ago
  Throwaway email address?

LatteLazy 2y ago

This fixes the issue with leaks. But it creates a much worse issue: anyone can now sequence anyone else's DNA with zero oversight or privacy controls. The film Gattaca covers how this could lead to a sort of night are society pretty well, I highly recommend it. It also makes it much much harder to use the data for clinical research.

gizmondo 2y ago
What prevents anyone from sequencing anyone else's DNA with the current system?
- red-iron-pine 2y ago
  aye. fake emails aren't hard to come across. create a fake username and ID, and then claim the sample is you or your kid.
- duped 2y ago
  Nothing but terms and conditions of the website. That's how Paul Holes identified the Golden State Killer, he created a fake profile and sent in the DNA from a crime scene and worked backwards from the results to find a suspect.
psychlops 2y ago
Out of curiosity, how is this "much worse" than a breached honeypot of DNA information?
nytesky 2y ago
Great movie and I didn’t realize the title was composed of a nucleic acid sequence until like the 2020s!
tylervigen 2y ago
OK, you send the company two random numbers. One an ID, and the other a unique encryption key to encrypt the results.

gklitz 2y ago

Unless you are suggesting they publish the most PII there is, you should propably specify that the data they should publish should be aggregated non-identifying information next to the number, not the actual DNa strings.

TrainedMonkey 2y ago

Your genetic data is probably most accurate / valuable PII there is. Assuming multiple relatives use the service and at least one of them leaks online identity the whole jig is up. So the issue is not tying it to your online identity, but rather them keeping a resource which becomes more valuable as the time goes on. So why is that an issue... most obviously because of genetic predisposition. There is always a temptation to sell diseases you are predisposed to insurers (and maybe employers... ugh). After that you can imagine someone figuring that genetics affects any number of things (sugar / weight / addiction) and sell that to advertisers...

halyconWays 2y ago

Are you kidding? The CIA would never fund that and if such a company existed, the founder would probably end up going for a 130 MPH drive at 2 AM and getting in a crash that burned so hot nothing but ash remained.

beaugunderson 2y ago

It's relatively easy to go from genetic data to a surname, which is a big flaw in your described release method...