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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

#401

Post by ryanmercer »

johntiger1 wrote: post #193
evv555 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I definitely would not submit my kids to the same fate. You already have since your DNA is out there in a database.

That's not exactly how DNA works. Their kids should be mostly fine (99.99% similar is still night and day)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dna-from-genealogy-site-used-t...

They caught him because a relative had submitted their DNA.

>Investigators compared the DNA collected from a crime scene of the Golden State Killer to online genetic profiles and found a match: a relative of the man police have identified as Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who was arrested Tuesday at his suburban Sacramento home.

The same sort of scenario is possible for medical related things.

"John Smith has these health risks, oh look he's listed as the father of our client Jane smith so she likely carries these health risks. Adjust her rate/drop her policy".

That said, I willingly gave my DNA to 23andme & Ancestry.com, I find the stuff interesting and worth the potential future risks. Once whole genome falls below a few hundred dollars I plan to have that done too.

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

#402

Post by monkeydust »

bobthepanda wrote: post #82
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…

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…

Very good point, re-sales chances almost zero not allowing for product enhancements perhaps.

I use a blood test service (https://www.getlivesmart.com/) every six months but I can measure changes to my markets based on interventions to my lifestyle that they suggest post GP review. To me that type of service is worth it.

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

#403

Post by Infinitesimus »

endorphone wrote: post #135
Infinitesimus wrote: post #112

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. This confusion matters if the average customer is making decisions based on that info. It doesn't matter (yet?) that they require a warrant and are transparent. All that matters is that enough people believe 23andme will share pe…

I would expect it to matter on HN. Facts matter. Increasingly people are just saying entirely wrong, easily disproven things and because it sounds right to whatever the bias of the crowd is, it's accepted. However I doubt that angle has any relevance to their sales decline, beyond the most fringe element. As others have rightly said, the majority of people who have an interest in the information that 23andme offers h…

Agreed. I don't think law enforcement concerns are a factor in the decline either (else Ring doorbells wouldn't be flying off the shelves etc.)

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

#404

Post by code4tee »

This DNA testing stuff intrigues me but there’s too much shady stuff going on with the data afterwards for me to want to give it a go. A lot of this “consumer grade” DNA testing may go down in history as a great product foiled by doing shortsighted dumb stuff with people’s data.

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

#406

Post by turk73 »

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.

How so? Because we already know who all the people are who are committing 99% of the crimes. We don't do shit about it! They get arrested and turned back out onto the streets.

So how would new technology matter?

And you know what else would be cool? To see some prosecutions of the real, big-time crooks like the Biden family! That would at least enable me to continue believing that this country isn't an oligarchy. From where I'm sitting, the just-us system looks pretty two-tiered.

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

#407

Post by katzgrau »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #373
katzgrau wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company's direction is going to be aligned with the owners/shareholders goal, which isn't always but in most cases is profit. At least we know that. Government? Who knows - whatever behavior emerges when you get a bunch of self promotors, egotists and idealists to compete amongst each other for whatever it is that each is individually competing for.

So in other words, with companies we know for sure the data will be abused badly, as much as possible. Governments are a wildcard; today they may actually protect this data and use it mostly responsibly. Tomorrow, they may bust your head for being related to someone or some group they don't like.

Not really, because many companies are owned by decent people who have a personal value system and their companies are reflections of that. Most business owners I've met are good and decent people. It's actually very hard to build a great company and team if you're aren't a genuinely decent person.

When a company is sold or is subject to the interests of people divorced from the original mission and values of the company, problems will likely emerge.

I guess my point is that you can't really trust anybody, because humans are the fundamental building block of both corporations and government, and their personal or collective self interests emerge to create issues regardless of their structure or purpose.

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

#408

Post by ryanmercer »

war1025 wrote: post #292
cstejerean wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do, it depends how far back you signed up I guess. I did this many years ago, around the time they first launched and I got constant reminders that this or that new information is not available for me unless I upgrade to their latest chip. I think once I was able to upgrade by having them rerun the first sample I submitted, but at this point I think I’d have to send a new sample in if I remember the message corr…

Honestly the most interesting thing in the whole result to me was the "Number of Neanderthal markers" thing. All in all, probably not hugely worth the expense. But I guess the novelty of it was fun.

>All in all, probably not hugely worth the expense. But I guess the novelty of it was fun.

Yeah, for me it was half novelty and half trying to figure out more about my father's side of the family. My father died just before I turned 13, when his father died about a decade ago I asked my great uncle what he knew about the family... he didn't even know his mother's maiden name which I only discovered at the end of last year, several years after my great uncle also died. I can trace part of my mother's side back with confidence to at least the 17th century, my father's family had gone cold in the early 1900s until I discovered my grandmother's maiden name.

Novelty is also why I want my whole genome done. Once it's down to a few hundred dollars I want to have it done and ultimately have it printed and put in binders, purely for the novelty.

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

#409

Post by adenner »

evv555 wrote: post #130
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 definitely would not submit my kids to the same fate. You already have since your DNA is out there in a database.

Half of it at least

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

#410

Post by thaumasiotes »

tareqak wrote: post #396
thaumasiotes wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, I mean that your identical twin's child will appear to be your child under a genetic test, for the obvious reason that you and your identical twin have the same genetics.
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