very regretable and very predictable
23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
171–180 of 321 posts
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I actually had intended to point out the dangers of "scope creep". Everyone is happy with a lot of pretty invasive stuff - dragnet surveillance, targeted surveillance (i.e. bugs placed in a suspect's home/car/computer/phone), DNA and fingerprint mass tests, no-knock raids - in severe crime cases such as terrorism, murder, rape, child sexual exploitation or abduction. So far, so good, and almost all Western countries…
Why is DNA investigation supposed to be limited to "severe" crimes? It's just another investigative tool. The idea that it should be limited implies there's something sordid about it. Why should I accept that implication?
An amusing thing here is that the arguments against DNA were also made against the use of photography, back in the 1800s. At some point people have to realize that personal unease is not an argument.
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
So, the reason for privacy is because the profit motive of capitalism is not sufficiently restrained as to protect citizens from being abused by corporations?
Be careful you don't break something with those gymnastics.
The immediate concern I had with this story is nefarious groups or individuals purchasing this data to target people with violence based on their ethnicities. Imagine if the genome of millions of Europeans was available on the black market in 1930s Europe.
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, the reason for privacy is because the profit motive of capitalism is not sufficiently restrained as to protect citizens from being abused by corporations?
Or a rival country could create a virus that targets 80% of their enemies population and only 20% of their own
This is tin-foil hat nonsense.
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#175This 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…
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.
Nobody has perfect 100% individual choice/freedom. By itself, maximizing for it is a non-argument. The best explanation I've heard is that "my rights end where yours begin (and vice versa)". That is not an easy line to draw, so the debate becomes where exactly do we, as a society, decide to draw that line. (Noting that this also is never a singular, fixed answer)
Even without defining a specific model around how genetic data should be handled, I think it's more than fair to say that most people right now don't even consider how their choice to sign up for 23andme might affect their relatives (already born or otherwise). Even if they do, in my experience, it's only to a very surface-level degree.
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#176This 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…
nobody will listen to your counterargument. They don't care.
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The US does do DNA collection for anyone it detains whether they end up being granted legal status or not.
They were processing so much DNA that they had to write a special rule allowing border agents to _not_ collect it if it would cause operational difficulties to do so.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/09/2020-04...
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#178I 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.
You have no guarantee on the type of regime under which you will live in a few years nor on the rules it will enforce. Actually, democracies are perfect regimes for rapid rule change without requiring a regime change.
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, the reason for privacy is because the profit motive of capitalism is not sufficiently restrained as to protect citizens from being abused by corporations?
My go-to is "what if literal nazis come to power and use this information to kick-start their eugenics program", but I guess rampant capitalism is also on the threat list.
There are already businesses that practice eugenics based on illegal data like this or illegal maps
Re: 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9M users
#18023andMe is just pissed that someone or a group of hackers stole the same data they were selling to other companies.