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23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

reuters.com

271–280 of 426 posts

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite thriller story idea comes from knowing a character’s SNPs that are also covered by the standard forensic DNA panel. Then the antagonist in the story buys a bunch of oligos that flank the panel targets and spreads them around the crime scene to “frame” the character for murder! So once the ‘’’bad guys’’’ purchase the 23andme database, the story is complete! They can then frame our protagonist…

It makes entertaining fiction, but in the real world, the ways that can be used to lock you up and discredit you in the public's eye are much more banal. And I doubt they'll get more sophisticated the way things look in the US right now.

With all those sweeping upgrades to artificial generational technologies, a time will come where no one will trust audio-visual clues and evidence collection will be solely focused on DNA fingerprints.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your genome can be scavenged from the air. It is not information we are capable of keeping private.

But can it be isolated from the myriad of life floating around? I doubt that specificity would be economically profitable. The police did catch the Golden State Killer by scavenging a used coffee cup or somesuch, however.

>The police did catch the Golden State Killer by scavenging a used coffee cup or somesuch, however.

And it required detectives to follow him around until he left whatever it was that was adequately isolated. It's a little different from a database of 7 million.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#274
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could actually be a plot point on a dystopian sci-fi movie (identifying people by weird metrics like toe size and such)

You might like Gattaca if you haven't seen it.

One of my favorite movies

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

scam emails are pennies on a dollar, though. it's so easy to just go through any email list ever and blast out thousands at once. It's not really a business that cares about targeted approaches. >depending on how policy on immigration and naturalization shifts Birthright citizenship invalidates such profling, but even then: I don't think the government needs DNA to figure out identities of people in the database.

> It's not really a business that cares about targeted approaches. It's called open rate and open rates are heavily driven by titles. Spam filters also use reputation to rank senders and open rates are one indicator of sender "quality". They definitely use targeted approaches if they can get their hands on datasets. > Birthright citizenship invalidates such profling Only if you think that matters and the SCOTUS will…

>They definitely use targeted approaches if they can get their hands on datasets.

Even on a firesale, I doubt it would be cheap enough for the margins they work on. These aren't exactly large scale, sophsticated operations being worked with here.

>Only if you think that matters and the SCOTUS will uphold it.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think they will. If only because it's an absolute nightmare logistically trying to do it any other way. No country is going to accept a deportation flight of peopel who were not born on their land.

Or perhaps we have an underpopulation crisis decades later which does incentivize that. But that would solve the deportation issue in and of itself, right?

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#276
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for saying this. I’ve done some of these saliva samples and I’ve seen the freak outs about what happens if “they” get my genome. But I cannot for the life of me figure out what they would do with it maliciously? It’s not like it can be used to sign up for a credit card or whatever.

people back then with the same exact mindset: "what could they possibly do with just my fingerprints?" im just afraid of the unknown. now its useless but how about after another 5/10 years?

Also, genes pass down to your kids, compared to fingerprints which are just cca unique for each of us. What a terrible thing to (unknowingly) do to them. Gattaca and all.

When I first heard about them and similar services, the potential for abuse was the first thing that came to my mind. I am not paranoid in any way and those were easy times compared to now. Still, I prefer not knowing my ancestry than this.

And ancestry for Europeans is not such a hot topic, you just need to look at a bit of history of continent and its civilizations and get the idea.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#277
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for saying this. I’ve done some of these saliva samples and I’ve seen the freak outs about what happens if “they” get my genome. But I cannot for the life of me figure out what they would do with it maliciously? It’s not like it can be used to sign up for a credit card or whatever.

people back then with the same exact mindset: "what could they possibly do with just my fingerprints?" im just afraid of the unknown. now its useless but how about after another 5/10 years?

Sorry, what exactly could (a is) someone doing with my fingerprints?

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#278
post #97

Already downloaded and deleted my data. It’s so wild that some new buyer could just buy peoples’ genetic data at a fire sale.

It was wild to send your genetic data to a private company that could do whatever it wanted with it for a gimmick (3% Irish? who cares, if you're interested go look up archival records of your ancestors).

My half aunt who never knew who her father (my grandfather) was found my family through 23 and me relative matching. That's life changing, not gimmicky.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So rather than $8 a share they get zero? Sounds like the board was the one that messed things up.

> So rather than $8 a share they get zero? Sounds like the board was the one that messed things up. The share was trading at $8-$9 at the time. The primary reason why the board has been rejecting the offer is that the CEO kept proposing discount prices to the market rate.

It sounds like the discounted prices were quite justified?

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#280
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're living in a time when it might well be worth the cost to stand up to a bully.

[flagged]

How is the prior comment political? In this case, the CEO/49% owner is being referred to as the bully?
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