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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

#281

Post by Kiro »

dfee wrote: post #63
all_blue_chucks wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the impact of having your DNA known? As far as I can tell the worst case scenarios are finding out you have to pay child support or getting placed at the scene of a crime. If those risks don't apply to you, who cares?

If you’ve got nothing to hide... then make it all public. Let’s start with your finances.

That argument is so bad and is so inefficient that it does more harm than good. People sacrifice their privacy as a trade-off to get something. What do they get by simply releasing all their finances?

Every time I've used it they just laugh it off with "why would I do that?" and think I'm ridiculous.

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

#283

Post by user5994461 »

runaway wrote: post #270
jakear wrote: 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…

Yes your DNA is a secret, just like your fingerprint is a secret.

Companies shouldn't be allowed to aggregate and resell that information. Hope the GDPR will give grounds to close shops doing that.

edit: typo DNS instead of DNA

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

#284

Post by mFixman »

thephyber wrote: post #156
kilo_bravo_3 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The DNA records aren't the type that can be used to clone you, or frame you with some kind of non-existent DNA copying machine. They are autosomal records. (or similar genealogical, or non-medical, types) The people spinning fantastic fairytales about how the jackbooted thug of big brother is going to crush your throat probably don't even know what autosomal means and no amount of eductio…

> or frame you with some kind of non-existent DNA copying machine I can imagine the hacker swaps your name + account metadata on the data warehouse website with the DNA content of a murderer. Then you get a visit from the police just like you were being SWATted. The mismatch is only found if the police bother to verify by doing a fresh DNA comparison (which they might, but only if they can't convince you to admit gui…

A hacker can swap my name + address with a murderer right now without access to my DNA.

All of the hypotheticals in this thread (except for the CRISPR future superweapon) can happen right now without the need of a DNA leak: the US had an explicit system of racial discrimination encodes in the law until the mid 1960s without the need of 23AndMe. My insurer already has data about my genetic diseases and pre-conditions from blood tests I did as a baby.

I want to be worried about the leak, but I really cannot think of any consequence that's not a crazy sci-fi hypothetical or something that can be done more easily without access to the DNA database.

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

#285

Post by jlg23 »

dcgudeman wrote: post #233
jacquesm wrote: post #199

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.

So I should get the consent of my entire extended family before I ever submit my DNA to a service for analysis?

No, but for having the results stored at some company.

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

#286

Post by chii »

ransom1538 wrote: post #267
jacquesm wrote: post #199

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.

Ignorant question here. How is this not regulated through HIPAA? Shouldn't these board members of this company face prison? DNA, a prosecutor could argue is a unique health identifier. "Access to equipment containing health information should be carefully controlled and monitored." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_a...

if they construe their DNA data as not health information, but instead information like finger prints?

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

#287

Post by haihaibye »

ig1 wrote: post #274
jacquesm wrote: post #199

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…

If a child has 2 copies of a variant you know both parents have at least 1 copy.

You know what parent a male's X and Y came from.

You can use phasing and linkage to reconstruct parental haplotypes.

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

#288

Post by sbassi »

dcgudeman wrote: post #233
jacquesm wrote: post #199

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.

So I should get the consent of my entire extended family before I ever submit my DNA to a service for analysis?

Your data, your rules. I put my 23andme raw data in github (https://github.com/sbassi/MiGenomaSbassi) for the world to see and use without asking anybody in my family.

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

#290

Post by chosenbreed37 »

user5994461 wrote: post #283
runaway wrote: post #270

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…

Yes your DNA is a secret, just like your fingerprint is a secret. Companies shouldn't be allowed to aggregate and resell that information. Hope the GDPR will give grounds to close shops doing that. edit: typo DNS instead of DNA

> Yes your DNS is a secret, just like your fingerprint is a secret.

But is it really? I think the point being made here is that actually it is relatively easy to obtain someone's DNA. Is there a law that prevents someone who knows your name from picking up a discarded coffee cup and extracting your DNA? I think it's an interesting debate. Is your face private? Is the sound of your voice private? Those things are unique to you but anybody that interacts with you will be exposed to those features including possibly your DNA. I guess the concern is how the data is collected, what it is used for and in the case of DNA the impact it has on anybody that has a genetic link to us. I think it's fair to consider DNA in separate category. There's only so much that can be deduced from your face as compared to DNA. It's tricky...

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