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How could they not? It was inevitable without data protection laws. Even if 23andme didn't go bankrupt, this would have happened as they chased more money - eit

by squigz 1y ago

How could they not? It was inevitable without data protection laws. Even if 23andme didn't go bankrupt, this would have happened as they chased more money - either directly selling the dataset, or "licensing" it I think people knew this would happen, eventually. The real question is whether they cared. To most people, protection and privacy of data like this is still an abstract concern. I suspect that won't change until a serious data leak happens or something along those lines - although I hope I'm wrong.

micromacrofoot 1y ago
People don't care so deeply that if you tried to explain it to the average person they'd be bored by the conversation. I one time tried to explain why someone should be concerned about their social security number being leaked in an exploit... and the reaction was "maybe they'll steal the student loans I'll never be able to pay"
- squigz 1y ago
  One reason such issues are so abstract to so many people is because they have bigger things to worry about - like paying off debts. Worrying about things that, from their perspective, they can't change and doesn't directly affect them, isn't high on their list of things to do. Casually dismissing it is a way of coping.
  - burnt-resistor 1y ago
    Because Americans lack livable wages and a reason to hope. The economic royalists have won for now because they've successfully crushed the middle class and pushed people to desperation and belief in delusions rather than courageous, intelligent, honest, productive leaders.
sumeno 1y ago
In the same way that people have "known" for decades that smoking causes cancer and smoked anyway, however efforts to keep that knowledge at the forefront of people's minds at the point of consumption by requiring extremely clear messaging on cigarette packaging (in countries other than the US) have been shown to decrease smoking rates. If these companies were required to put up a big banner before you check out saying "By purchasing this and giving us your data we have the right to sell it to whoever we want" with examples of how the data may be misused by bad actors people may think twice. Not everyone will, but I suspect it would be more effective than you think

by squigz 1y ago

micromacrofoot 1y ago

People don't care so deeply that if you tried to explain it to the average person they'd be bored by the conversation. I one time tried to explain why someone should be concerned about their social security number being leaked in an exploit... and the reaction was "maybe they'll steal the student loans I'll never be able to pay"

squigz 1y ago
One reason such issues are so abstract to so many people is because they have bigger things to worry about - like paying off debts. Worrying about things that, from their perspective, they can't change and doesn't directly affect them, isn't high on their list of things to do. Casually dismissing it is a way of coping.
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  Because Americans lack livable wages and a reason to hope. The economic royalists have won for now because they've successfully crushed the middle class and pushed people to desperation and belief in delusions rather than courageous, intelligent, honest, productive leaders.

sumeno 1y ago

In the same way that people have "known" for decades that smoking causes cancer and smoked anyway, however efforts to keep that knowledge at the forefront of people's minds at the point of consumption by requiring extremely clear messaging on cigarette packaging (in countries other than the US) have been shown to decrease smoking rates. If these companies were required to put up a big banner before you check out saying "By purchasing this and giving us your data we have the right to sell it to whoever we want" with examples of how the data may be misused by bad actors people may think twice. Not everyone will, but I suspect it would be more effective than you think