221–230 of 321 posts
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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?
How do you make the leap to it being an issue of capitalism? There are plenty of bad actors who could use this information (or other hacked info) who are not a corporation seeking profit.
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If that's your only concern, you need to read up on something called "Nazis." Imagine what they would do with a database of genetic information.
That Nazis could use something for truly evil purposes is hardly limited to this but, I think, the concern is. You can imagine nazis transporting Holocaust victims and soldiers by rail, because they did, but I’ve never heard anyone argue against adding more rail infrastructure because if Nazis take over they could use the rail infrastructure to enable genocide.
So place your data like your railways, where you can blow em up when circumstances necessitate it.
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.
I’d really like my 23 and Me info, but I assumed it was only a matter of time before they were hacked or sold to an untrustworthy organization willing to sell out users to make a quick buck. If the test was done, the results were sent, and then my test data/info were destroyed on their end, or if I could do a home test where the data never left my home, then I’d do it. I struggle to understand why companies hold on t…
they claim, at least, that this is the case if you delete your account; i got my results, downloaded my data and deleted my account years ago
Do they have 0 fraud prevention? I doubt the attackers cycled IPs.
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It can be tied to your identity, that's the point. Because they'll have your relatives' data.
They can match me with my DNA if they already have complete knowledge of my family structure and all their DNA. So if all Kardashians but one send their DNA for tests providing their true identities and the last one sends anonymously, they can assume the identity of the last one. So yes, there's a risk but its not much different from going outside and leave behind hair or saliva unaccounted for. That's Putin level of…
Or just a part of it, which is the point: no, complete knowledge isn't required here.
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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.
It’s similar to the Office of Personnel Management data breach when every Federal Employee was just 0wn3d. It included 21.5 million background investigations into people and the personnel files of every federal employee and most contractors.
Just slightly sensitive stuff. Nobody knows how many people died as a result of the hack, but I’m sure it was non-trivial because a LOT of people got surprised doxed.
This information is still rattling around out there and will have implications for generations.
Imagine if the same could be done for demographics based on genetics — the risk factors for medical conditions, the ethnic ties you’re talking about, etc.
It’s weighty stuff.
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Considering one of the hacker's first actions was to offer for sale data identifying people of Jewish or Chinese descent I think that's a very valid concern.
Did anybody actually buy it though? This could be misdirection, or just misguided marketing based on historical instances of abuse. China isn't known for trying to repatriate descendants, and it's not exactly difficult to find Jews. Ancestry data would certainly be of interest to a particular demographic known to discriminate by caste. There's no escaping your low-class heritage when anyone can look up your stolen DN…
And the choice to share or protect this information just got taken away from every one of their customers forever.
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…
Agreed, but also "privacy" is an abstraction that layers over the actual thing that people are worried about. Any answer to why do you care about hiding this information? can all be boiled down to the fear that "[person or group] might use [private data item] to create [bad outcome] for me." So the thing people actually care about is the risk of bad outcome, not the actual data itself. If your theory is correct, then…
Regardless of the outcome, I’m entitled to my privacy and my privacy is important to me simply for the sake of my autonomy.
Simply having my privacy violated is a bad outcome in and of itself.
Relinquishing privacy in order to participate in modern society in a meaningful way is one of the great frustrations of modern times… for some.
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 Personally speaking, I think Equihax was the better counter-argument; at least with 23andme YOU as a customer had to DECIDE to use their services and weigh the pros-cons of doing so, with Equihax I was forced into a rating system to determine my eligibility in a system that hoovers up any and all data sold to them by 3rd parties and holds all my p…
What I'm trying to say is: I don't think comparing it to equifax is reasonable in that regard.
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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?