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23andme for only $99 today only

23andme.com

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Re: 23andme for only $99 today only

#51

Post by dsplittgerber »

jacquesm wrote: post #46
aniketh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't they be tied to the agreement that you had when you signed up for the data? I always thought that you'd have to agree with new "terms-of-use" whenever they change

Just to give you an example, I just bought at an auction the complete contents of a defunct company. Amongst the stuff I got was their servers and their bookkeeping. I never entered in to any agreement with the people whose data is stored on those servers, and yet I have all of it. A 'survival clause' that would guarantee destruction of your data in case the company goes out of business would be a minimum here. But i…

I agree with your sentiment in general, not your specific arguments though. First, they're only talking about research, not about selling data. Secondly, I don't think your comparison to AOL and Netflix is valid. AOL users were identifiable by googling their own name etc. How is one supposed to identify you when all there is is your DNA and nothing else, which has never been saved anywhere else at all?

Re: 23andme for only $99 today only

#52

Post by jonknee »

jamesbritt wrote: post #39
huhtenberg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They require no verifiable personal information. You can send your spit in as John Doe.

Well, there's payment info attached to tests.

Pay with a prepaid credit card. They're handy for all sorts of things.

http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/prepaid/visa_gift_card.ht...

Re: 23andme for only $99 today only

#53

Post by jacquesm »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #51
jacquesm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to give you an example, I just bought at an auction the complete contents of a defunct company. Amongst the stuff I got was their servers and their bookkeeping. I never entered in to any agreement with the people whose data is stored on those servers, and yet I have all of it. A 'survival clause' that would guarantee destruction of your data in case the company goes out of business would be a minimum here. But i…

I agree with your sentiment in general, not your specific arguments though. First, they're only talking about research, not about selling data. Secondly, I don't think your comparison to AOL and Netflix is valid. AOL users were identifiable by googling their own name etc. How is one supposed to identify you when all there is is your DNA and nothing else, which has never been saved anywhere else at all?

Your DNA is half your parents', and your childrens DNA is half yours. Given a sufficiently large number of datapoints you can work out the DNA of those in between. And given a few 'confirmed' identities you could use that more complete picture to work out the identities of the rest, even if you did not know their names.

Your DNA is your identity. It just hasn't been tied to the meta data of your name, address and social security number, but again, with a bunch of confirmed identities of relatives that is a job that is probably doable.

Re: 23andme for only $99 today only

#58

Post by jacquesm »

jeff18 wrote: post #55
jacquesm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not with your name and address attached to them, as well as a fee to help in processing them.

It's not possible to do it anonymously?

I'm really not sure on how to make this even more clear, but your DNA is your identity, so when you give it to someone they have your identity and no amount of anonymization is going to change that.

All you're missing is the metadata of 'name, date of birth, social security number' and so on. But that's just a system we've placed on top of 'who you are', which is your genes.

Your fingerprint, your retina scan, your full lifes history, nothing in that list will identify you as good as your DNA does.

So once you have someones DNA you can reconnect it with the rest of the information at any point in the future by simply checking to see where that DNA turns up again, including fractions of it in your descendants.

You can't really anonymize it.

Re: 23andme for only $99 today only

#59

Post by bbgm »

jacquesm wrote: post #46
aniketh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't they be tied to the agreement that you had when you signed up for the data? I always thought that you'd have to agree with new "terms-of-use" whenever they change

Just to give you an example, I just bought at an auction the complete contents of a defunct company. Amongst the stuff I got was their servers and their bookkeeping. I never entered in to any agreement with the people whose data is stored on those servers, and yet I have all of it. A 'survival clause' that would guarantee destruction of your data in case the company goes out of business would be a minimum here. But i…

I'd argue that this is what makes 23andme interesting. Without that capability, it's a toy for rich people.

First of all, today, this is not full genome information, just your genotype. Second, if we want good molecular medicine, information like this is essential (some might argue the only way) to get good sampling and do the appropriate research.

Addendum since I can't reply to the comment. They don't quite have the technology on hand today to do full genome analysis today. I am not sure there is enough material to do whole genome sequencing with current technology (I could be wrong).

Re: 23andme for only $99 today only

#60

Post by dsplittgerber »

jacquesm wrote: post #53
dsplittgerber wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your sentiment in general, not your specific arguments though. First, they're only talking about research, not about selling data. Secondly, I don't think your comparison to AOL and Netflix is valid. AOL users were identifiable by googling their own name etc. How is one supposed to identify you when all there is is your DNA and nothing else, which has never been saved anywhere else at all?

Your DNA is half your parents', and your childrens DNA is half yours. Given a sufficiently large number of datapoints you can work out the DNA of those in between. And given a few 'confirmed' identities you could use that more complete picture to work out the identities of the rest, even if you did not know their names. Your DNA is your identity. It just hasn't been tied to the meta data of your name, address and soc…

In a far off future, where enough DNA data is publicly (!) available, that may be the case. Until then, to which data set should any company compare my DNA to find out who I am?
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