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23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

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

#391

Post by lenkite »

glennpratt wrote: post #299
cookiecaper wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this isn't science fiction or conspiracy theory anymore. Several high-profile cold cases have gone hot as police have been trawling the datasets submitted to 23AndMe et al and investigating the family trees of persons whose DNA is similar-ish to the samples in unsolved cases. [0] The results are mainly bupkis anyway, and you're paying for the privilege of having police agencies across the country (world?) give…

It's all tradeoffs, I want some privacy, but I also like crimes being solved. In fact, I'd see that as a benefit even if I'm related to criminals. Of course this assumes it is used correctly and fairly, which is the hard part.

What about when devices come that are sensitive to read people's minds as they walk down the sidewalk ?

Monitoring citizens minds would be a tremendous boost to solving crimes. This rule will be equitably applied to all citizens by a fair and principled government excepting special groups like oppressed minorities or members of the government/military themselves.

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

#392

Post by zimpenfish »

phkahler wrote: post #265
jellicle wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After account closure: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain your genetic information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional Code Section 1265, and College of American Pathologists (CAP) accreditation requirements. 23andMe wi…

>> date of birth, and sex That's enough to identify people in some zipcodes.

John D Cook did a couple of good blog posts on this

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/12/07/no-funding-for-unw...

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/12/07/simulating-zipcode...

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

#393

Post by novaRom »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #364
hyperbovine wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This wild, unfounded fantasy completely misses the point: genetic privacy is fundamentally unlike other types of private information. It is trivially easy for someone to collect your genetic information if they really want to, completely legally and without your consent. They could, for example, obtain bits of the multitude of genetic material you spread around your environment simply by existing -- chewing gum, hair…

having access to a vast, identified DB of DNA is a lot different than hiring someone to follow millions and millions of people to capture their DNA.

As someone said in a comment above, blood samples of all people born in CA (and probably in many other locations) are stored centrally, so there is a non-zero chance their DNA info is leaking to foreign databases. I highly recommend to watch "yt! How to Survive the 21st Century Davos 2020". Harari makes very important statements related to this discussion.

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

#394

Post by epmaybe »

jsgo wrote: post #79

> Wojcicki has theories Think the obvious one is that the results are shared and whether someone is a criminal or not (or will be one in the future), people are not particularly comfortable with sharing to parties they didn't initially trust it to for the purposes they trusted it for. Anecdotally, I bought a 23andme kit (just the genealogy one) but never submitted it because the labeling was to send it to the lab in…

While you may or may not have trust in the US government protecting your rights, there was a law passed years ago that somewhat addresses your concern.

GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act) https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-110s358rs/pdf/BILL...

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

#395

Post by endorphone »

ta999999171 wrote: post #319
endorphone wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This keeps coming up by people who are seemingly confusing 23andme with GedMatch. They are very different platforms, and even the latter has greatly changed their law enforcement policies. 23andme requires a warrant. They publish a transparency report and since 2015 they've gotten a grand total of 7. Having said that, if my DNA catches a distant relative who commits severe crimes, that hardly discourages me. As an as…

> you think the people who do genetic ancestry are idiots. I've seen anonymous but redacted proof-bearing confessions from people these companies saying they "fuck with pure white people" by throwing in random ethnicities, so...at minimum, not all of them respect the integrity of their work. Which shouldn't surprise anyone, due to...them being humans.

It sounds like you read an absurd fan fiction. The notion is absolutely ludicrous for a variety of reasons that are too boring to get into here, but it is absolutely remarkable the nonsense parroted about 23andme on HN.

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

#396

Post by tareqak »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #262
munk-a wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the government encounters one of their kid's DNA, that's enough to identify them as a son/daughter of the person with that DNA profile. I don't believe that's ever been tested in court (so there isn't precedence) and the ways in which DNA are complex enough - and the mutation rate is high enough - that it might be like fingerprints... if you're the only person with DNA that might be like the kind found and you'v…

A parent/child relationship is crystal clear in the genetic data (barring the case where what you're actually seeing is an aunt or uncle and the child of their identical twin). And I'm pretty sure paternity tests have a lot of precedent in US courts.

Do you mean chimeralism [0][1]?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)#Humans

[1] https://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=2315693

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

#397

Post by kenjackson »

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.

The technology is here now. If a bad actor wants your data they can easily get it without you submitting anything. Unless you protect your bodily fluids I think you should generally already consider your dna compromised.

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

#398

Post by ThrowawayH4MCb »

andy_ppp wrote: post #383

Hang on, haven’t they just signed a deal with a drug company worth $$$? You’d think there would be hundreds of ways to monetise the types of people who have signed up for their platform...

There are. The people laid off didn't significantly contribute to that work, however.

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

#399

Post by endorphone »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #312
hi41 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sent a saliva swab and got my dna analyzed by 23andme. I got back information I already knew such as where I came from etc. Serious question. IF the government catches a relative of mine who is a rapist or a murderer from my dna, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Could someone please explain what could go wrong. Keeping our community from heinous criminals is a good thing isn’t?

Forensic genealogy isn't perfect. There are a few different kinds of DNA tests and comparisons, and some of those are better than others, and which one is used and how the DNA is collected and the interpretation of the results is still left up to human beings with badges, so it's still error-prone. This has led to people being wrongly accused, and even convicted, of serious crimes: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/scienc…

The police don't charge anyone based upon a 23andme test. They couldn't given that the typing done by 23andme and friends is an incomplete chip analyzed subset used for ancestry and some health tests.

If you took that 23andme test and uploaded it to GEDmatch, however, there are genetic genealogy experts who can figure out family trees, with which the police can narrow in somewhat to try to figure out who might fit a crime. Then they can ask you to volunteer a sample for comparison, or covertly get one.

It has been spectacularly successful. A lot of cold cases have been getting solved because of such analysis.

As to your list of URLs, I think people should actually read them. A guy had a trivial inconvenience after he had a familial match with a violent rape, and he met all of the other criteria (travel area, made a movie about a violent murder of a young female, etc). Then he was exonerated. He could have had more of an inconvenience if he simply had a car that looked slightly like a suspect vehicle, or the same hair style, but this is the example of overreach? Another is an absurd misuse of DNA in Taiwan that has zero applicability.

The final sentence is just nonsense. The DNA isn't even the lynchpin in most cases, the police instead building a case given that lead.

It's also worth noting that one of the greatest tools for exonerating people wrongly convicted is....DNA. Many people who unjustly spent decades behind bars are being freed based upon DNA.

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

#400

Post by hi41 »

rainyMammoth wrote: post #309
hi41 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sent a saliva swab and got my dna analyzed by 23andme. I got back information I already knew such as where I came from etc. Serious question. IF the government catches a relative of mine who is a rapist or a murderer from my dna, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Could someone please explain what could go wrong. Keeping our community from heinous criminals is a good thing isn’t?

ah, here we go. The notoriously flawed "I'm doing nothing wrong and I have nothing to hide" argument. There are so many reasons why this is wrong and it is a pretty well known philosophical stance. A couple reasons: - You assume that the government is acting for your best interest. What would happen if we elect a crazy president that changes the direction of the country? (Think WW2 Germany with their eugenics). - You…

Yes, I did not think of laws that can change in the future. I will reach out to 23andme and request the deletion of my dna results and my account. I hope it works.
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