Some background from Freakonomics a few months ago:
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-23andme-going-under-...
Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
241–250 of 372 posts
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. The market can be THAT wrong, not just wrong but also corrupt and broken (on purpose). Hint: regulatory crisis, Suzanne Trimbath, failure to deliver shares, naked shorting, Tesla shortsqueeze, VW shortsqueeze, UBS's and Swiss gov's 50 year secret, etc.
You’re kinda all over the place with your “hints”. Naked shorting and failure to deliver shares have zero relationship to setting a bid price people are willing to buy at. Shortsqueezes are cases of driving prices up because shares are hard to get and shorts need to cover. Again, not related to the best offer being too low. Secrets are also dumb examples because that’s hidden information. What we’re talking about her…
I'm willing to grant some leeway on a shortsqueeze.
If one is willing to grant that the stock "price" for a liquid listing, is the price for a stock at any given time, then you could argue the markets are "wrong" insofar that the price quoted in the open market, is absolutely not the correct price - regardless of the excuse of a short squeeze.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s a very glib HN take. Interest in family trees predates Ancestry.com and will certainly outlast it. It’s not necessarily about contact. I’m not sure what’s controversial here.
I run a small web server for a dataset we call the "BIGFAM" - Geneweb with a proxy on the front. It has >120,000 individuals in it. In places it is not so much a tree as a thicket! That data is hard fought and won by a relative who conducts meticulous research as a hobby. They've been at it for a good 20 odd years now.
Im trying, really trying to understand what BIGFAM is about. Is it related to gut biome, and what the bacteria eats, and trying to find the genes for that? Or am I completely lost.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are from the United States its interesting to trace back your ancestry and last name to a specific person/persons from another country. There are tons of websites for different last names in the United States, showing history of the name. Many times the last name be traced back to a singular person, which I find especially cool since you have sprawling families all connected by one guy who made the journey ove…
In addition, for people who were adopted and didn't know their birth parents, it can be interesting to connect with your biological family through ancestry work.
My mother is adopted and 23andMe and Ancestry have both provided me with a way of connecting with relatives as far apart as Canada and Australia. Before “revealing” my connection to them I’ve stated that in doing so I may reveal information about a shared ancestor that doesn’t put that person in the best light (my mum was the result of a short affair between a married man and a much younger woman at the end of World War 2). All have stated they are ok with this and in most cases had no contact to the ancestor involved anyway.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I run a small web server for a dataset we call the "BIGFAM" - Geneweb with a proxy on the front. It has >120,000 individuals in it. In places it is not so much a tree as a thicket! That data is hard fought and won by a relative who conducts meticulous research as a hobby. They've been at it for a good 20 odd years now.
How has Geneweb worked for you? Is it straightforward enough to use if you are somewhat technical, or do the “wizards” need to have a solid understanding of OCaml to make it worthwhile? My daughter has been interested for years in delving into our different familial trees and has extensive records on paper and in various digital formats. She isn’t overly technical but could be taught to use a web interface if she’d g…
In my humble opinion as an amateur genealogist, after a year or so with paid services (Ancestry, Myheritage) I find there is really no good reason not to use a combination of Wikitree and Familysearch, both free, if we ignore DNA tests.
Especially familysearch allows private profiles, no need to share. Wikitree has a policy of "do not add living people", but it is possible to do and Ive done it for close family.
Yes, this means sharing fairly freely, but I do not see a reason not to. Unless you want a fantasy tree, sharing your tree will make it higher quality. We all make mistakes here and there.
Wikitree especially requires you add sources to your work, which might feel odd for a personal tree of course.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…
> leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Acknowledging Ancestry.com are well ahead of the market here, but I never got their appeal of finding some long-lost second cousins... basically strangers, and saying, "hey, isn't it fascinating that we share some arbitrary level of common genetic makeup". If some randomer reached out via email to me doing this big reveal I'd be "thanks, but into the s…
It’s also helping children figure out who their bio dad is since most aren’t involved in their kids lives these days.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think data-breaches could carry the death penalty for companies. I just got a notification from some health services company that my and my toddlers data was accessed. Including medical history, diagnoses, payment details, SSN, birthday. Why was this not encrypted? Given the world today, this is negligent. The government should be able to disolve the company and give the money to the victims. If there was a willful…
> I think data-breaches could carry the death penalty for companies. The ironic thing is: why pay for their data now when it's out there already? Sounds like they played themselves
Because most companies aren't going to go out to the dark web and buy breached data with bitcoin?
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#248Zero chance I ever give my DNA to one of these companies.
I took an alternate approach: my genome is freely available: https://my.pgp-hms.org/profile/hu80855C When I was sequenced, a bunch of genetic counselors at Illumina analyzed it and said they couldn't find a single gene mutation that was linked to increased risk of disease, which was a surprise to me but is really absence of information rather than information of absence.
This is very unethical and you should be ashamed of yourself. You leaked 50% of your direct relatives here, 50% of any future or current children you have. Did you ask them for consent?
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
why are these companies worth so much, if not for sneakily monetizing and selling their user's most personal data?
The plan was always that DNA could be use for medical research, which is enormously valuable. And given that 23andme currently has a market cap 1/20th DJT (Trump Media & Technology Group Corp) -- a firm that makes less revenue than a variety store yet has huge losses -- I wouldn't really say it's "worth so much".
Ask not how it can be used, but rather how it will be misused, generating various profits for owners of the data down the line. So far targeted ad business takes the cake, I'd expect DNA profiling and corresponding credit/social score, insurance premiums and recruiting score coming eventually.
I can't believe how people can be naive over and over.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw Ann when she gave a talk at Google (that was when she was still married to Sergey). They had spit cups we could use if we wanted our DNA sequenced. I didn't. Their business plan was straight out of South Park: 1. Collect lots of DNA 2. ?????? 3. Profit!!
Isn't that the case for almost every single VC backed startup?
s/dna/data and you're pretty much any tech business.