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23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

cnbc.com

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Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#351

Post by CaptainZapp »

ewoodrich wrote: post #334
slimed wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stunning naivete on display here

How so? They point out the difficulty balancing personal privacy and tools to identify criminals who have evaded justice. Just because you don't agree with the relative importance placed on either side doesn't make them dumb or naive.

What makes you naive is if you put any smidegeon of hope into the fact that insurance companies will not hesitate to buy and abuse such data to fuck you over left, right and central then you really are beyond help.

If you want to risk that, fine. But you're also screwing all your relatives in the same swell process.

And that's not only naive and dumb, that's totally reckless.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#352

Post by blackrock »

hkai wrote: post #305
blackrock wrote: post #303

That’s what happens when bad press about your company comes out, and you’re too clueless to recognize it. Why do I really care about other people with similar genetics to me? This seems to be a greater risk for me, if I put myself into that database. And if someone else has a similar genetic as mine, and they commit a crime, then I’m automatically roped in as well. Do I really want the police knocking down my door, a…

I think most ordinary consumers like your mom and dad don't care about privacy. I know at least two DNA companies that send your data to China for processing and yet nobody cares. So it may not be the reason of 23andme's problems - it might be just that the market is saturated. People who wanted to take the test, like me, already did it.

I disagree. My parents paid to not have their names and phone number listed in the white pages. So they cared about some semblance of privacy, as it existed back then.

This age of Google and search engines, where anything and everything is captured digitally, and will last forever, is creepy as fuck.

It’s no longer even about your social media profile anymore. Or of the curated pictures that you post online to share with your friends. It’s all about your browsing history now. Your clicks, your mouse movements, your GPS location, your iPhone battery meter, your voice as you wake up. Everything, just to build some profile on you, either now, or in the future, because that data is all there, just waiting to be harvested.

This dystopian nightmare that we now live in, is like some prison that we are born into, and which we don’t even know exists. It’s all around us, and monitoring us, and continuously profiling us.

And it has one and only one goal: To turn us into a penny.

Or a coppertop.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#353

Post by solatic »

a254613e wrote: post #336
blackrock wrote: post #303

That’s what happens when bad press about your company comes out, and you’re too clueless to recognize it. Why do I really care about other people with similar genetics to me? This seems to be a greater risk for me, if I put myself into that database. And if someone else has a similar genetic as mine, and they commit a crime, then I’m automatically roped in as well. Do I really want the police knocking down my door, a…

And if someone kills every memeber of your family, and they leave DNA behind, but police are not allowed to use DNA databases which WOULD find the person that commited the crime and they don't have a match otherwise (since we're already making assumptions that something will definitely happen)? I mean this goes both ways. One thing I don't understand about this whole hate for DNA databases and matching relative's DNA…

> why?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Better to prevent the emergence of corrupt and unjust institutions, than to try to reform or dismantle them after they have been formed. Institutions have inertia - once they reach a certain size and state, any change is difficult.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#354

Post by a_imho »

zyang wrote: post #110
bobthepanda wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I would also say that a partial reason why these would've dropped is that everyone who can do it has done it. You only need these kinds of results once because your DNA doesn't change. I knew people who were giving or had gotten these as gifts, but those are one-off purchases. And if you've heard of people doing it then you'll do it too but that's also a one-off. I don't think I'd personally benefit because…

I did it 6/7 years ago because the novelty, and enthusiastically recommended it to family and friends. Now I regret doing it considering how Google and Facebook has abused consumer data. I definitely would not submit my kids to the same fate.

What was your opinion 6/7 years ago about the people raising these concerns? Were you aware back then that sometime in the future you will (probably) regret it?

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#355

Post by collyw »

JohnFen wrote: post #225
zyang wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did it 6/7 years ago because the novelty, and enthusiastically recommended it to family and friends. Now I regret doing it considering how Google and Facebook has abused consumer data. I definitely would not submit my kids to the same fate.

I'm similar. My sister pressured me into doing it about 5 years ago. These days, I really regret that I gave in and did it.

Surely most of the interesting stuff would be shared between you and your sister assuming you have both parents the same.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#357

Post by IshKebab »

a254613e wrote: post #336
blackrock wrote: post #303

That’s what happens when bad press about your company comes out, and you’re too clueless to recognize it. Why do I really care about other people with similar genetics to me? This seems to be a greater risk for me, if I put myself into that database. And if someone else has a similar genetic as mine, and they commit a crime, then I’m automatically roped in as well. Do I really want the police knocking down my door, a…

And if someone kills every memeber of your family, and they leave DNA behind, but police are not allowed to use DNA databases which WOULD find the person that commited the crime and they don't have a match otherwise (since we're already making assumptions that something will definitely happen)? I mean this goes both ways. One thing I don't understand about this whole hate for DNA databases and matching relative's DNA…

The problem with DNA is not that there are false positives but the fact that almost everyone thinks that there aren't.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#358

Post by La1n »

rrdharan wrote: post #140
bobthepanda wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gifting someone a thing that could be used as a paternity test at a baby shower would be more than a little rude. And presumably if both parents have already done it why would you need to test the baby?

Mutation is a thing.

But 23andme will always show some differences, while individual SNPs have high accuracy >99% due to the amount that is being tested you will always have some results that are wrong. Multiple testing problem is an issue here.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#359

Post by a_imho »

Ohn0 wrote: post #149
bobthepanda wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I would also say that a partial reason why these would've dropped is that everyone who can do it has done it. You only need these kinds of results once because your DNA doesn't change. I knew people who were giving or had gotten these as gifts, but those are one-off purchases. And if you've heard of people doing it then you'll do it too but that's also a one-off. I don't think I'd personally benefit because…

They need a SaaS! Monthly/yearly subscription to updates of some sort

Pivot into mining all the present data and sell it to the highest bidder if not doing that already.
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