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One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

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Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#11
post #3

All of the at-home DNA testing companies include this in their license agreements, including the ability to use your DNA in case any of your relatives might be accused of a crime. This is one case in which you definitely want to read the license before you sign up... then throw that test tube in the trash!

It doesn't really matter what you do personally. If any of your relatives submit their DNA, you're compromised just the same.

yep, your DNA spread around the relatives ( whom you may not even know about) is just like a BitTorrented movie - there is no way to put genie back. Even worse than that - at least in the movie case the studio does have legal rights to their movie while you have no rights wrt. the pieces of DNA of your relatives matching your DNA.

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#12

I am torn on this, as on the one hand it does violate privacy to a very large degree and provide massive power to the government. Things I am very much against. On the other hand, essentially all this does is provide law enforcement a means to potentially quickly identify violent criminals via physical traits as opposed to the contents of their mind such as forcing someone to unlock a phone which I am very against. A…

re: "..essentially all this does is provide law enforcement a means to potentially quickly identify violent criminals via physical traits"

Perhaps today at 3:00 EST it may helping law enforcement identify violent criminals, but tomorrow it may be helping other gov't entities directly (or indirectly via familial) identify individuals for any reason at all.

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#13
The term "At Home" is very disingenuous. Spitting in a tube at home and then mailing your DNA to a lab is not At Home. A proper at-home test would be a kit that allows you to decode your DNA at home without a single strand DNA or byte of data landing on a system that does not belong to you.

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#14
post #6

I really can't tell if we are headed towards a "1984" dystopia, a "Brave New World" dystopia, a Black Mirror "Nosedive" dystopia, or now a "GATTACA" dystopia. It seems like we're headed to a horrible hybrid combination of all of the above.

Well I think the government sells us fear aka-1984 and the tech world sells us pleasure aka-Fahrenheit 451. Really it’s just two sides of the same coin. And that coin is control.

But we get cool stuff like Seashell Radios--err, Airpods!

I love putting my dystopian hat on, because I think it offers a convenient and critical lens to look at daily life through...

I'd say the coin is a little more subtle than overt control, too. It's breeding passivity through comfort and entertainment, through the facade of individual power.

Same thing they talked about in the Federalist Papers. Give some poor people a bit of land and they're no longer part of the poor class. Do that, the wealth in control gets a buffer from the masses. You create a class that will fight for you, because it means they get to keep their acre.

Same thing we see now. A passively entertained populace has no reason to revolt. So just keep giving them small luxuries and distractions.

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#15

I really can't tell if we are headed towards a "1984" dystopia, a "Brave New World" dystopia, a Black Mirror "Nosedive" dystopia, or now a "GATTACA" dystopia. It seems like we're headed to a horrible hybrid combination of all of the above.

I would bet for "brave new world", because there's plenty of places ("islands") to leave a modern society and live your life without google, DNA tests, antibiotics or anything else.

Just going to throw antibiotics in there...lol

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#17

I really can't tell if we are headed towards a "1984" dystopia, a "Brave New World" dystopia, a Black Mirror "Nosedive" dystopia, or now a "GATTACA" dystopia. It seems like we're headed to a horrible hybrid combination of all of the above.

I don't mean this in a seriously snarky tone, but: What you're saying has been said by every generation which experienced great leaps in technology.

Why is this wave of technology, one less transformative than the invention of the printing press or transistor or nuclear bombs (none of which lead to ruin), going to be the one that leads to a dystopia?

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#18

I am torn on this, as on the one hand it does violate privacy to a very large degree and provide massive power to the government. Things I am very much against. On the other hand, essentially all this does is provide law enforcement a means to potentially quickly identify violent criminals via physical traits as opposed to the contents of their mind such as forcing someone to unlock a phone which I am very against. A…

`law enforcement a means to potentially quickly identify violent criminals`

Go ahead and replace "law enforcement" with political group you don't like, and "violent criminals" for a group you do.

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#19

I really can't tell if we are headed towards a "1984" dystopia, a "Brave New World" dystopia, a Black Mirror "Nosedive" dystopia, or now a "GATTACA" dystopia. It seems like we're headed to a horrible hybrid combination of all of the above.

I would bet for "brave new world", because there's plenty of places ("islands") to leave a modern society and live your life without google, DNA tests, antibiotics or anything else.

No antibiotics? I guess if you don't want to live long.

Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI

#20
post #3

All of the at-home DNA testing companies include this in their license agreements, including the ability to use your DNA in case any of your relatives might be accused of a crime. This is one case in which you definitely want to read the license before you sign up... then throw that test tube in the trash!

It doesn't really matter what you do personally. If any of your relatives submit their DNA, you're compromised just the same.

What if the relatives are okay with their DNA being used?
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