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Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

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Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#272
post #204

One thing I’m thinking about: this is probably an inevitable future. That we like it or not technology is going to be more and more intrusive. If not our generation, the next one, or the one after. We’ve seen that short-sighted laws have caused more harm than good on the long-term. Like the war on drugs. Knowing this, is there a future where we can lose privacy but still live a good life? And what can we do to get th…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#273

And half the DNA of all of the siblings and parents of the people that submitted their DNA, a quarter of their grandparents and grandchildren and so on. That's what I really hate about these companies, they get people to submit their DNA and the customers do not realize it isn't a decision that affects just them.

I wouldn't consider DNA to be secret information. Given that you leave them every where you go.

Not secret but I would definitely consider it a PII (personally identifiable information), which makes it subject to regulations such as GDPR.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#274

And half the DNA of all of the siblings and parents of the people that submitted their DNA, a quarter of their grandparents and grandchildren and so on. That's what I really hate about these companies, they get people to submit their DNA and the customers do not realize it isn't a decision that affects just them.

In terms of medical data the amount of leakage is somewhat limited by the nature of DNA, e.g because you get a random mix you can't conclude anything about parents, etc medical status.

By far the biggest practical knock-on effect is if you match someone who's doesn't know their parentage (adoption/illegitimate children/etc) who can figure out their parentage as a result of that match.

Familial DNA crime searches are probably the next biggest, but they're still very rare at the moment and many of the DNA platforms don't allow them (GEDMatch was one of the few that do).

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#275

And half the DNA of all of the siblings and parents of the people that submitted their DNA, a quarter of their grandparents and grandchildren and so on. That's what I really hate about these companies, they get people to submit their DNA and the customers do not realize it isn't a decision that affects just them.

I wouldn't consider DNA to be secret information. Given that you leave them every where you go.

This is the same gap between being seen face to face in a public square and having a high resolution 3D scan of your body.

We're ok with the former since the dawn of times, we're not happy with the later being digitally shared around the world.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#276
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your street view doesn’t contain your entire genetic record (including propensities towards disease, mental and physical, which could very easily be used to discriminate against you). So they’re not really comparable whatsoever. And what is with this “this terrible thing X will happen eventually, so why not have it happen now?” argument I keep seeing nowadays? Your argument was quite literally: “Eventually someone wi…

I'm a little confused about what exactly the point of debate is here. * Is your DNA a secret? I think the fact that you leave it everywhere means no. * Should people be allowed to aggregate that information? It literally cannot be stopped so I think the point is moot. I guess what I'm missing is any addressing of the reality of the situation. I'm guessing from the content of your reply that you think that the practic…

> Should people be allowed to aggregate that information? It literally cannot be stopped so I think the point is moot.

Just because you can't stop something doesn't mean you shouldn't even try. Otherwise we might skip having laws altogether.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#277
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your street view doesn’t contain your entire genetic record (including propensities towards disease, mental and physical, which could very easily be used to discriminate against you). So they’re not really comparable whatsoever. And what is with this “this terrible thing X will happen eventually, so why not have it happen now?” argument I keep seeing nowadays? Your argument was quite literally: “Eventually someone wi…

I'm a little confused about what exactly the point of debate is here. * Is your DNA a secret? I think the fact that you leave it everywhere means no. * Should people be allowed to aggregate that information? It literally cannot be stopped so I think the point is moot. I guess what I'm missing is any addressing of the reality of the situation. I'm guessing from the content of your reply that you think that the practic…

To your first point, you can go out to the street and bring home someone’s random dna, but there is no way you’d ever be able to know who’s dna it was.

... unless you were to look it up maybe, in this leaked dna database.

Dna is not inherently an identifier. It needs the lookup code in order to act as one. A database like this MAKES it no longer a secret.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little confused about what exactly the point of debate is here. * Is your DNA a secret? I think the fact that you leave it everywhere means no. * Should people be allowed to aggregate that information? It literally cannot be stopped so I think the point is moot. I guess what I'm missing is any addressing of the reality of the situation. I'm guessing from the content of your reply that you think that the practic…

To your first point, you can go out to the street and bring home someone’s random dna, but there is no way you’d ever be able to know who’s dna it was. ... unless you were to look it up maybe, in this leaked dna database. Dna is not inherently an identifier. It needs the lookup code in order to act as one. A database like this MAKES it no longer a secret.

I'm not talking about taking random samples off a sidewalk. I'm saying if you follow a person you know and collect something they've discarded, now they're in the database. Do that enough times and everyone's in it. That's the exact technique the police use to collect people's DNA without their consent.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little confused about what exactly the point of debate is here. * Is your DNA a secret? I think the fact that you leave it everywhere means no. * Should people be allowed to aggregate that information? It literally cannot be stopped so I think the point is moot. I guess what I'm missing is any addressing of the reality of the situation. I'm guessing from the content of your reply that you think that the practic…

> Should people be allowed to aggregate that information? It literally cannot be stopped so I think the point is moot. Just because you can't stop something doesn't mean you shouldn't even try. Otherwise we might skip having laws altogether.

I'm just looking for a helpful, actionable response. All I've seen so far is "X is bad" (not actionable) and "Let's ban X" (not helpful).

What good will it do you that there's an international ban on DNA databases when corporations use the impossible-to-stop one anyway to discriminate against and target you or the police use it anyway to throw you in prison.

The most helpful course of action imo is to learn how best to cope with this new reality. How should we set our expectations when our DNA is public and searchable? Are there behaviors that would once be safe but will not be in the future? I think those are the more relevant questions.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#280
Perfect, so I, a hypothetical nation state can build targeted and tuned viral RNA for phenotypes and people I know will definitely cause me the most trouble on the battlefield, diplomats, engineering floors, and economy? Oh, corona has among the largest kilobase count? Hmmmmmm. What a fucking coincidence!
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