What is a good alternative to 23andMe that retain confidentiality, and is it enough to use/play with Python packages for genetics
Nebula might be worth checking out, I've heard it's pretty good but I have not personally used it.
Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
311–320 of 372 posts
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. The routine emails I get about them allegedly finding new DNA relatives suggest otherwise. The DNA relatives feature is also still pretty prominent in their UI (at least on desktop browsers; haven't looked at the app yet). That said, it certainly doesn't offer much beyond "these are your relatives; send 'em some messages or something lol". Ancestry probab…
The new-DNA-relatives feature is one of the few "growth" things they can continue to bother you with, outside of newly-discovered genome-based indicators for diseases. I get/got spammed by them about new relatives on the order of "6th cousin who shares 0.3% of your DNA." Thanks, but who cares...
"Give the kits as gifts!" and you can learn about your closer relatives /s-ish
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#313There is absolutely no reason for these companies to collect your PII whatsoever. You should go to nearest pharmacy and buy sterile swab, swab yourself and write long random number on it and send it. Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote.
This fixes the issue with leaks. But it creates a much worse issue: anyone can now sequence anyone else's DNA with zero oversight or privacy controls. The film Gattaca covers how this could lead to a sort of night are society pretty well, I highly recommend it. It also makes it much much harder to use the data for clinical research.
OK, you send the company two random numbers. One an ID, and the other a unique encryption key to encrypt the results.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do put try to make them a mix of feedback + entertainment. Example To: jeff@amazon.com subject: The Day the Music Died I was looking forward to playing my Yamaha Digital Piano that I ordered from Amazon today when I got home from work at "the country club". Instead I'm stuck tapping this UPS "Delivery Attempted" notice and the melodies just aren't coming through. ? In the last 6 months I ordered 37 packages from Am…
What was the reply? Give us the gist if you don't want to share the whole thing.
Yes, they solved it. I forget what they did in that case, but IIRC it was like, that night or early next morning the piano showed up. And I got a phone call from someone in JB's office.
Even last week I had a similar experience:
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2024 06:24:04 -1000
Subject: the journey of the thermometer
From: Breck Yunits
To: jeff@amazon.com
ORDER NUMBER 112-0027370-6957065
Please don't ask me to explain. Look at the shipping history. The package has travelled from Hawaii to California. I am in Hawaii. WTF?? October deliver for an amazon prime 2 day?!!!!
please fix.
thanks lov ya bye!
------
Within hours I got a voicemail:
"Hi, this is Heidi calling from the Amazon executive customer department calling you regarding to the email you sent to Andy Jesse"
And Amazon identified and fixed the problem and gave me a $30 gift card.
----
I tell all the startups I invest in: if the CEO of $1T Amazon with 1.6 million employees can intelligently handle receiving constructive customer emails over a $10 purchase, why can't you?
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
My oldest brother did so I'm already screwed
Can even one single person here articulate their specific fears of using 23andme, or is it all FUD?
Besides the obvious examples of gathering a nice database to use for genocidal purposes... (sure lot's of idiots like to say that's overblown or not really a worry, while being alive in a world where there are on-going 'ethnic cleansing' campaigns).
There's also things like - the terms of service include the boilerplate "these terms are subject to change at any time", and I don't want those terms to suddenly change to "we will provide your PII to all insurance companies proactively in exchange for a kickback every time they are able to use it to reject a claim".
I already get hassled by the law somewhat frequently because my house used to be the residence of a criminal (2 owners ago it was used as a rental and that owner evicted said criminal). I don't want to add getting hassled by a bunch of people who came in below the max IQ requirements over someone I've never met because they're from "that side" of the family.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
My most radical political opinion is that we need a right to privacy enshrined in a constitutional amendment. And it needs to be robust enough to prevent the government from subpoenaing data collected by private companies.
The 4th Amendment should already do that.
The traditional favorite game of the supreme court is reducing the bounds of the 4th amendment. At this point its easier to list the things that the 4th protects than it is to list all the exceptions and "well actually not this..." situations the court has carved out.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny you picked 80 years. It's been roughly 80 years since members of a certain ethnic group were hunted down, corralled, and murdered because of their lineage and genetics. And their murderers mostly only had census data and people willing to snitch on their neighbors to go on. A DNA database? Oof.
Thankfully time only goes forward and since I don't expect a large scale ethnic cleansing among the developed world since our birth rates are already below replacement I think we're fine.
Tell that to China, Russia, and Trump.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
The resignation implication is that the CEO is running the company to the ground. The comment further implies this is on purpose in order to buy the company cheaply.
Since CEOs typically own a lot of stock and are compensated for performance, doesn’t that seem like a strange theory? Intentionally destroying a company you run and own shares in so you can buy more shares seems like a really complicated and high risk strategy compared to just running it well, making a fortune, and getting an even bigger CEO gig.
Was that not a strategy successfully employed by Ford to edge out other investors?
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#319A little trivia: since the recent 23andMe breach, the desci project genomesdao has launched a new service that allows 23andMe data exports to be imported into their platform. They then attract pharmaceuticals to make specific requests and share the profit from the requests. They'll explain it better on the site! They've been around since at least 2018, have won recognised innovation awards and is run by scientists, so not your typical crypto project.
Disclaimer: 23andMe customer and genomesdao holder.
Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board
#320Literally just one day after 23andMe presented positive phase 2 clinical results for two anti-cancer drugs: https://therapeutics.23andme.com/news-and-research/ The board of directors of 23andMe just resigned in protest. The CEO, Anne Wojcicki (who's sister Susan died of lung cancer last month, and was the former CEO of YouTube) had tried to low ball take the company private at only $0.40 a share -- a more than 96% dr…
So why doesn't Ancestry/Blackstone buy out 23andMe? Antitrust? Shareholder control issues?
They are deeply unprofitable and always have been. Looking at FY24, they spent $4 for every $1 in revenue.