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23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

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Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#101

Post by mschuster91 »

pfdietz wrote: post #88
kfk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, the police is able to find criminals now by finding DNA sequences similarities with your relatives. Not saying this is good or bad, I am just saying you don't know the extent of the impact to your personal freedom when your relative's DNA is shared.

I can help track down distant family members who have committed crimes? Sounds like a plus. I think the angst about this comes from men who don't want their status as fathers of illegitimate children (or, rapists when they were younger) unmasked.

> I can help track down distant family members who have committed crimes? Sounds like a plus.

It's no longer so easy when the definition of "crime" gets expanded. Let's take this scenario:

- you're a first generation Chinese immigrant in the US

- a nephew of yours is in China and critical of the CCP

- you decide to have your genome scanned into 23andme or whatever to determine if you are at risk of genetic illness

- your nephew sprays an anti-CCP tag on a wall somewhere

- the Chinese police gathers DNA evidence from a laxly discarded spray can, but doesn't have fingerprints so they can't immediately link the can to your nephew

- the Chinese government, either via a legal subpoena or via espionage, gets its hands on your genetic profile from the genetic analytics company

- the Chinese government finds your data, now knows that the sprayer must be related to you in some way, and forces everyone of your family to subject to a DNA test

Sounds dystopic? Yes. But this is exactly where we will be headed. Police here in Germany already do DNA tests on petty vandalism [1].

[1] https://www.fuldaerzeitung.de/fulda/fulda-bahnhof-neuhof-dna...

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#102

Post by pfdietz »

Majestic121 wrote: post #96
pfdietz wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can help track down distant family members who have committed crimes? Sounds like a plus. I think the angst about this comes from men who don't want their status as fathers of illegitimate children (or, rapists when they were younger) unmasked.

Why do you make this issue gendered, and if you do why would it impact only men father of illegitimate children, and not cheating mothers ?

The mother will already be connected to the child. The father is what would be needing tracking down.

I mean, wasn't that completely obvious?

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#103

Post by pfdietz »

mschuster91 wrote: post #101
pfdietz wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can help track down distant family members who have committed crimes? Sounds like a plus. I think the angst about this comes from men who don't want their status as fathers of illegitimate children (or, rapists when they were younger) unmasked.

> I can help track down distant family members who have committed crimes? Sounds like a plus. It's no longer so easy when the definition of "crime" gets expanded. Let's take this scenario: - you're a first generation Chinese immigrant in the US - a nephew of yours is in China and critical of the CCP - you decide to have your genome scanned into 23andme or whatever to determine if you are at risk of genetic illness -…

It's precious that you imagine not getting your DNA sequenced will provide any sort of shield against dystopian governments.

This sort of thing looks more like a psychological crutch than an actual effective action.

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#104

Post by [deleted] »

mkl wrote: post #87
spacebacon wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, if Google didn’t make so many world changing products so quickly I’m sure I would have less criticism of Google in general and fit in more easily here.

Does what you wrote have something to do with Google? I don't see it.

[deleted]

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#105

Post by gcanyon »

Does anyone think privacy of any real sort is maintainable going forward? Machine learning algorithms are learning to identify people just by their walk -- no face recognition required. Algorithms are moving toward being able to decipher text just by the audio of the keyboard being typed on.

In short, given a gestalt of ALL public data and sufficiently advanced algorithms is there really a way for people to maintain what we today consider reasonable privacy without extraordinary measures, unfailingly applied?

To be clear, I'm not value-judging the situation, just expressing what I think the ongoing trend is.

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#106

Post by toyg »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #37
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a lawyer so I can't answer the question, but it will defintely complicate going to court, and I'm confident that the company has more lawyers and more money for lawyers than the average user. A class action suit may follow, but only if enough people and lawyers are willing, and it'll likely end up with a pittance in damages paid in a settlement, eventually.

What really interests me is "Are ToS changes absolutely binding?" I am also not a lawyer. But I think there are two types of changes to ToS. One is purely administrative. For example, they might change the methods available to reach for support. For example, they might say that you are no longer able to send a Fax to get support help. Or that their domain name changed. Second is something that changes the service tha…

It doesn't really matter in practice, because the discipline around contract law is (typically) based on reasonableness of terms - I can't sign TOS that say I'm a slave, nor will TOS apply if such a clause is introduced at a later stage.

Regardless of whether terms are changed for administrative or product reasons, what matters is the reasonableness of terms imposed on the other party.

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#107

Post by spacebacon »

mkl wrote: post #87
spacebacon wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, if Google didn’t make so many world changing products so quickly I’m sure I would have less criticism of Google in general and fit in more easily here.

Does what you wrote have something to do with Google? I don't see it.

I’m sorry, I don’t understand what e2le has typed here.

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#108

Post by [deleted] »

stef25 wrote: post #67
nroets wrote: post #57

Isn't it time governments start to regulate passwords ? (They already regulate a lot of privacy issues like medical and financial history. Some governments even regulate the use of finger print authentication of employees) For example, any website that allows users to choose normal, easy to remember passwords should meet a long list of requirements: For example security audits, bug bounties, capital reserves to deal…

> Isn't it time governments start to regulate passwords ? Nah we're good. They already regulate cookies and it's a dumpster fire.

[deleted]

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#109

Post by concordDance »

mclightning wrote: post #100
stef25 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't it time governments start to regulate passwords ? Nah we're good. They already regulate cookies and it's a dumpster fire.

dumpster fire for who?

Users constantly having to reclick on popups.

Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users

#110

Post by joshuahedlund »

skummetmaelk wrote: post #21
fsckboy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in favor of privacy, and I'm willing to go more out of my way to not share than the vast majority of people, but I'm also in favor of individual choice, and I can't think of a privacy model that would disallow other people from sharing their information just because you have some matching information.

I can think of an easy model. Disallow collection of personal information. Pull the rug out from under "services" which are really just data collection fronts turning a profit from selling your data instead of the primary service/good for money transaction. 23andMe could still have operated legally under this scheme. They could have done the analysis and sent you a printed sheet. But no, they had to store everything…

> They could have done the analysis and sent you a printed sheet.

Could they tho? The ancestry analysis itself is based on the data of other users in other parts of the world?

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