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How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

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Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#31

Post by taneq »

Baeocystin wrote: post #29
taneq wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surprise half-sister > Dad may not actually be my biological father Wow, what a pair of bombshells! Was this stuff known to both your parents or did it blow someone's cover?

Unfortunately, I can't ask them, as my mother has passed away, and my father will not talk about it. The fact that my Dad wasn't interested in genetic testing was my first hint, as that is very unlike him. But it makes sense in the larger pattern- I am the youngest of the family by 15(!) years, and all of my siblings were adopted. It seems pretty clear in retrospect that my parents likely had to use a sperm bank. I'v…

Oh right, a sperm bank would explain both factors neatly. Certainly loop-worthy though!

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#33

Post by haar »

Nydhal wrote: post #19
goatsi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell a work friend or someone you know causally about 23andme. If they show interest suggest buying the kits together to save on shipping costs. Mention that you have a few friends who would be interested as well and give them the cash for a few kits. Their credit card and address will be linked to the purchase. When the kits arrive sell your extras to different causal friends and register yours with completely fake…

Why the extras?

I'd assume it's to prevent your friend from being able to know that the extra kit was yours? Though if all your friends use their correct information - that information is still leaked, hence the need to distribute them to friends outside of the same social circle to minimise the chances.

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#34

Post by afarrell »

splintercell wrote: post #20
hueving wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Holocaust happened fewer than 100 years ago. You don't want to publish such identifying data with humanity still so immature. It could turn out that you have the "dissident" gene and the government needs to get rid of you to preemptively stop the problems you might cause.

It's funny how different people have different approaches towards dealing with such a potential scenario. For instance, to some people, preventing others from accessing this information is a mechanism to prevent such a thing from happening in future. For others, having gun rights or living in a heavily armed society (such as USA) is a better preventative mechanism. FYI in N Korea dissidents 'genes' are removed from t…

The 2nd amendment existed in 1942, but that didn't prevent the Japanese from being rounded up. We didn't decide to murder them, but we could have.

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#35

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

throwanem wrote: post #6

I don't think Mr. Alexander has had this conversation with anyone in bioinformatics, where "SNP" is universally pronounced "snip" and given the preconsonantal indefinite article - "a snip", not "an ess en pee".

Why is this an issue? It's not like he's trying to make a career out of it.

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#36

Post by throwanem »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #35
throwanem wrote: post #6

I don't think Mr. Alexander has had this conversation with anyone in bioinformatics, where "SNP" is universally pronounced "snip" and given the preconsonantal indefinite article - "a snip", not "an ess en pee".

Why is this an issue? It's not like he's trying to make a career out of it.

It fell oddly on my mind's ear and so seemed worth mentioning. Perhaps it wasn't.

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#37

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

howderek wrote: post #16
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just plugged my 23andme data into both. Waiting for results. I was thinking of sharing the results, is anyone interested? Is there really any good reason not to? I know people get all uptight about it but I'm not sure why.

I did this [1], and so have thousands of others through the Harvard Personal Genome Project and other associated projects. So far, I haven't faced any consequences. If you decide to do so, I encourage you to make your genes accessible to researchers by participating in the Harvard Personal Genome Project [2]. The main risk of sharing your genes is genetic discrimination. It's irreversible to share your genes, so I'd…

Promethease report is interesting...

https://adamjacobmuller.github.io/promethease.html

I'll do the PGP thing at some point... I get they want informed consent before I do it but its now asking me to review pages of material and making me take a test first...

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#38

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

synthematics wrote: post #18
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just plugged my 23andme data into both. Waiting for results. I was thinking of sharing the results, is anyone interested? Is there really any good reason not to? I know people get all uptight about it but I'm not sure why.

23andme currently offer an Ancestry Service, and a Health + Ancestry Service. Are you using just the Ancestry service here? Anyone know how their Health reports stack up against these 3rd party services?

I did 23AndMe a long time ago, before they had been neutered by the FDA. I wouldn't use them again for that reason.

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#39

Post by bigbugbag »

haar wrote: post #33
Nydhal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the extras?

I'd assume it's to prevent your friend from being able to know that the extra kit was yours? Though if all your friends use their correct information - that information is still leaked, hence the need to distribute them to friends outside of the same social circle to minimise the chances.

With a little cross referencing of third party "anonymized" metadata such as cellphone location, or facebook graph (works with other data set) it is very easy to uncover all the identities involved in this scenario with a high probability of success (>90%).

You'd have to push preventive measures further than distributing outside of the same social circle if you are serious about this.

One should also consider the legal aspect of this as there are places where faking your online identity is illegal.

Re: How To Use 23andMe Irresponsibly (2014)

#40

Post by bigbugbag »

ogoldberg wrote: post #32
snowpanda wrote: post #8

Has anyone used 23andme with fake information? If so, how?

Here's a pretty good article on exactly this question: https://www.abine.com/blog/2013/23andme-without-violating-yo...

Interesting read but too bad it is not practical for people don't work at albine (company making online privacy tools) and falls short of preventing your DNA code from being added to the large collection that is or will be used for whatever unknown purposes.
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