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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

#121

Post by mannykannot »

losvedir wrote: post #75
skummetmaelk wrote: post #6

This disaster is the perfect counter-argument to those always saying "why do you care so much about privacy. It doesn't affect you when I share things. You can just choose not to do it", except no, I can't choose when we're relatives and you chose to share our genome. It is so obvious that your relatives sharing their genomic data with 23andMe reveals a lot of information about you. We can only hope people will reali…

> This disaster is the perfect counter-argument to those always saying "why do you care so much about privacy. It doesn't affect you when I share things. You can just choose not to do it" While I agree it's a perfect counter-argument to that, is that what people always say? I'm not sure I've heard that argument as much as "why do you care so much about privacy?" full stop. As in, they don't really understand why anyo…

You are not likely to see the statement you are discussing unless you firstly somewhat frequently get into a situation where someone says something like "why do you care so much about privacy?" and then attempt to debate the issue.

It is not necessary to show actual harm from this breach for it to defeat the tacit premise behind the statement you are discussing, which is that their profligacy with their personal data cannot, by itself, reveal any of your personal data.

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

#122

Post by dylan604 »

spacebacon wrote: post #99
skummetmaelk wrote: post #6

This disaster is the perfect counter-argument to those always saying "why do you care so much about privacy. It doesn't affect you when I share things. You can just choose not to do it", except no, I can't choose when we're relatives and you chose to share our genome. It is so obvious that your relatives sharing their genomic data with 23andMe reveals a lot of information about you. We can only hope people will reali…

Maybe we all shouldn’t be so Quic to create bad ideas.

Right, like the person posting an idea on an Internet forum was the first and only person to have that idea. Security through obscurity does not work. It’s much better to open up the curtains and let the sunlight in. It’s the best disinfectant. At least then everyone is working with all of the information.

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

#124

Post by pfdietz »

dylan604 wrote: post #119
pfdietz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s not what the comment was driving at. At all. It’s about how data you think is innocent can be used in a manner you never thought about nor intended for dark purposes.

Fair. On the other hand, I'm a bit surprised that anti-immigrant forces in the US haven't made DNA sampling compulsory for new immigrants. The argument would be these would be harder to track down by these techniques, because the ancestry information is not as available, giving them an "unfair" advantage over white Americans.

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

#125

Post by dylan604 »

gcanyon wrote: post #105

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…

> Does anyone think privacy of any real sort is maintainable going forward

Probably not, but it doesn’t mean we can’t guide the conversations about how it looks in the future. Sitting idly by just means they win, but discussing it in the open means that we might be able to put some safe guards in place.

Oh, who am I kidding. We’re all screwed and evilCorp will win so we’re just wasting our energy and making ourselves crazy fighting. Resistance is futile

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

#126

Post by AndyMcConachie »

So people in my family have used 23andMe but I'm assuming my data is also compromised. I've never used the service because I think it's kind of weird and gross. But it probably doesn't matter that much if both of my parents and my brother have. Health insurance companies in the future can still charge me different prices based on my risk profile.

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

#128

Post by cj »

losvedir wrote: post #75
skummetmaelk wrote: post #6

This disaster is the perfect counter-argument to those always saying "why do you care so much about privacy. It doesn't affect you when I share things. You can just choose not to do it", except no, I can't choose when we're relatives and you chose to share our genome. It is so obvious that your relatives sharing their genomic data with 23andMe reveals a lot of information about you. We can only hope people will reali…

> This disaster is the perfect counter-argument to those always saying "why do you care so much about privacy. It doesn't affect you when I share things. You can just choose not to do it" While I agree it's a perfect counter-argument to that, is that what people always say? I'm not sure I've heard that argument as much as "why do you care so much about privacy?" full stop. As in, they don't really understand why anyo…

I think the more common one I've heard is "Why do you care about privacy if you have nothing to hide?"

In the case of 23andme, it's a perfect answer: We don't know what's hiding in our DNA and I don't know how people will use that against me in the future.

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

#129

Post by ribosometronome »

mikewarot wrote: post #62

I never seriously considered using 23 and me. Not because of hackers, but rather what government would do with that information. I don't want to be responsible for some random relative getting charged with a crime just because I was curious about my family tree.

Have they used these sorts of databases to charge things other than murder and rape? The cases I have seen solved by way of this technology, I would very much feel glad that something I did led to stopping someone doing seriously bad things.

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

#130

Post by me_me_me »

bartwr wrote: post #112

Something super creepy that happened to me recently: a hospital where I've been to a few months ago called me and asked me to participate in some DNA analysis program. They said "oh and the best part? You don't need to do anything! We will use blood samples we collected the last time." I obviously declined, but it was a huge wtf to me - they stored biological samples associated with me without informing me and can do…

Well they did call you and tried to trick you into letting them use it.

But assuming they obey the law they did not used your samples.

So there are privacy laws in place? Also they could have been cleaning old results/samples and this was one step.

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