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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

#291

I waited for this. Sorry to all that are affected, but maybe this is a sign for others, not to give their DNA to a random company.

Yeah, just like people stopped using their real identities on the net where there is absolutely nobody with an axe to grind for trivial issues. Sorry for the cynicism. What is even worse, people actually using these services create expectations towards everyone smart enough not to do that. Of course, that would mean your near relatives have to be smart enough not to use these services either... Now any health insurer…

Good way to identify people using cover. That's got some value to people that can perform these sorts of exfiltrations.

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not an expect, but it seems like DNA is responsible for around 50% of the personality variance between individuals. Note that the variance within groups is an order of magnitude bigger than the variance across groups, so there aren't super strong ties to race. I would imagine personality and/or propensity to mental illness or addiction are decent predictors of likelihood to commit crime. See this podcast for an…

That sounds like "predictive policing". The problem is that the institution that wants to predict crime might be inclined to use attributes of people who were previously arrested/convicted as the basis for the predictive model. They won't be watching out for you based on personality disorders, addiction, or any other reasonable indicator. They'll watch out for you because you have attributes that match the type of pe…

If they put moderate resources into it I'm sure they could come up with something fairly predictive. For example this paper [1] finds a significant, but weak correlation between height and violent criminality. Genetic influences on height are well known. However, point taken that all models are subject to abuse.

The morality is still fairly grey though, and I think the reward vs intrusion ratio would have to be pretty high before it gets widespread buy-in. Personally, I prefer the state being disinterested in my genes.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/43/3/835/760664

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

#295
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I strongly disagree. I consider it comparable to something like financial administration. In which an "expense" or "exchange" has two sides. Me, paying you, you receiving the money.

It is not up to me to decide to just release such data. Because it encodes other people's data too. If I were to release my financial records because "it's my data", i'd be exposing a lot of people, organisations and companies who I had interaction with.

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

#296
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is somewhat analogous to the privacy issues around Google Street View. Almost nobody thought the image of the front of their house was really private, but the idea of it being catalogued and searchable bothered more than a few. Removing the barrier of someone having to physically do the work to get that information at least made them feel more vulnerable. Has Street View been a problem for the world in t…

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…

> 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).

Isn't this a form of victim blaming? How is this different than saying Black people should try to hide their skin color since in many cases they will be discriminated against because of it? We should be working to suppress the discrimination at it's source, not it's target.

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

#297
There is another possibly very bad ramification of having your genetic data leaked: A disease that is tailored to kill just you or your family.

Check out this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIj0iJXTMug

This is why this data is a worse leak than just your image or fingerprint or something (not that leaks of those kinds of data are ok either).

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

#299
post #295
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I strongly disagree. I consider it comparable to something like financial administration. In which an "expense" or "exchange" has two sides. Me, paying you, you receiving the money. It is not up to me to decide to just release such data. Because it encodes other people's data too. If I were to release my financial records because "it's my data", i'd be exposing a lot of people, organisations and companies who I had i…

But it is up to me to decide to release my financial records. All the parties I've dealt with have to expect the possibility (unless there is some signed agreement that prevents disclosing them).

With DNA I'm not so sure.

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

#300
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of the core tenets of Mormon faith is that the dead can be baptized into the faith after their passing. Baptism of the dead evolved from the beliefs that baptism is necessary for salvation and that the family unit can continue to exist together beyond mortal life if all members are baptized. > Mormons trace their family trees to find the names of ancestors who died without learning about the restored Mormon Gos…

That's such an incredibly rude and conceited practice.

Oh, nonsense. Proxy baptism doesn't make you a member. That's not what they believe. Century after century Catholics taught that if your loved one had the misfortune to die before baptism, no hope. Eternal misery, because Christ said baptism was mandatory. Mormons say, well Christ was right of course but certainly not cruel, so the good news (gospel) is that if you don't get baptized before death for whatever reason, someone will take care of that formality for you so you can still choose in the next life whether you want it or not. If you decide you want it, then you were officially baptized. If you don't want it, you weren't baptized. (Someone else was, offered it to you, and you declined.)

If buying your ticket for a party that requires a ticket but you don't have to go to if you don't want to is "incredibly rude and conceited", you would have good reason to condemn all of Christianity similarly for Christ's claim that he paid the mandatory price for your sins, buying you a ticket to heaven that you'll need (Christians claim) but that you can either accept or reject, as you wish.

Mormons offering to extend the deadline for you to decide into the next life is hardly "incredibly rude and conceited" IMO.

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