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Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

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Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#31

Post by asdfkajh2 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #21
mirimir wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose. But once there's a bunch of stuff online that's linked to your DNA data, anyone who has your DNA data can correlate it all. And tie it to your true name. Bottom line, I see no compelling upside to putting ones DNA data on the Internet.

That's why I would like to send my DNA in anonymously; I don't want to link anything to my DNA data.

Pay with a burner credit card, throwaway account? Access via VPN / LiveCD if concerned?

23andme knows my DNA. They know my email, and possibly where I bought the kit.

They don't know who I am, I hope.

And, regardless, I suspect the de-anonymization will be either so haphazard or so thorough in the future that it's not a primary concern.

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#32

Post by a_bonobo »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #21
mirimir wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose. But once there's a bunch of stuff online that's linked to your DNA data, anyone who has your DNA data can correlate it all. And tie it to your true name. Bottom line, I see no compelling upside to putting ones DNA data on the Internet.

That's why I would like to send my DNA in anonymously; I don't want to link anything to my DNA data.

Even if you send it in anonymously, your DNA is so unique to you that by comparing it to other data you can infer at least the last name.

See for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23329047

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#33

Post by DavidAdams »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #24
pavel_lishin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else do they do?

The mormons use ancestry.com data to proxy-baptize your ancestors into their ridiculous death cult.

Mormons use genealogy data to proxy-baptize their own ancestors. Like many Christians, they have a rather literal interpretation of the New Testament: if you don't get baptized, you won't be "saved." Like many Christian denominations, they also believe that not any old baptism will do. You have to be baptized by someone with the proper authority and in the proper way (by immersion). Unlike most Christians, they believe that if you died without getting baptized properly, you're not damned. You just have to wait until one of your ancestors baptizes you by proxy. They believe that before the "end of the world" every human being who has ever been born will receive one of these proxy baptisms. That way, nobody goes to hell on a technicality.

It's an interesting loophole to get around a completely sick and twisted part of Christian theology: that many innocents are damned just because they didn't accept Christ and baptism in their lifetimes.

Now, I personally think Christianity is hogwash, and I don't believe in Mormonism. But to be worried that some well-meaning Mormon descendent is going to retroactively make you Mormon after your death is pretty silly. If you don't believe in Mormonism then the proxy baptism is meaningless.

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#34

Post by SapphireSun »

throwaway4567 wrote: post #5
pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

This is one of the reasons I've never sent a DNA swab to Ancestry.com, or 23andme. If I could do so anonymously, I'd do it in a heartbeat - but the potential losses+ outweigh the gains%. + admittedly, I'm not even sure what the worst case scenarios are, but that just makes them even scarier. % ooooh, I might learn that I have a predisposition to alcoholism and rectal cancer? That's nothing that my Russian father coul…

> If I could do so anonymously, I'd do it in a heartbeat You can. See "How to use 23andMe without violating your genetic privacy", https://www.abine.com/blog/2013/23andme-without-violating-yo... .

This doesn't sound very anonymous... for one - he's giving them his DNA. Unless he has an identical twin that's fairly unique. Secondly, an adversary can guess he's an abine employee or knows one. That narrows the search space considerably.

Whenever you donate DNA to a large DNA aggregating project, you can be fairly trivially re-identified via a few ways. Even if you control all the other information, if a relative contributes DNA, your match will be close enough to narrow it down to a few relatives (including you). The FBI has famously used this technique to find serial killers and identify seriously messed up paternity.

If it were me, I'd get the NIH Confidentiality Certificate. At least you have legal protections then.

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#35

Post by hueving »

xahrepap wrote: post #30
pavel_lishin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to reply with, "I don't care what mumbo-jumbo people say with my name embedded", but that actually is pretty offensive to someone with strong religious beliefs.

You have to be a descendant of the deceased to submit their name to be done. Also, there's a lot of sensitivity toward religions who have general qualms about the practice (for example, it's against the rules to submit Jewish holocaust victims). Also, many religious leaders of other faiths have gone on record[1] saying how they're glad the Mormons have brought back the biblical practice of baptisms for the dead. The…

>The practice isn't as cultist as some (gp) may want to imply without understanding what it implies and really means.

You are having some group of people you don't know say something about a dead relative followed by a ritual not based in any science to change which imaginary place they will be in.

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#36

Post by _delirium »

hueving wrote: post #35
xahrepap wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be a descendant of the deceased to submit their name to be done. Also, there's a lot of sensitivity toward religions who have general qualms about the practice (for example, it's against the rules to submit Jewish holocaust victims). Also, many religious leaders of other faiths have gone on record[1] saying how they're glad the Mormons have brought back the biblical practice of baptisms for the dead. The…

>The practice isn't as cultist as some (gp) may want to imply without understanding what it implies and really means. You are having some group of people you don't know say something about a dead relative followed by a ritual not based in any science to change which imaginary place they will be in.

Well yes, but that's not really a criticism specific to Mormon rituals; it applies to most religious rituals.

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#37

Post by johansch »

Here we go again, reading privacy policies like the devil reads the bible.

A more honest headline would have have been:

"There is no exception in place in the privacy policy stopping Ancestry.com from theoretically being able to target ads using your DNA."

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#38

Post by frgewut »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

This is one of the reasons I've never sent a DNA swab to Ancestry.com, or 23andme. If I could do so anonymously, I'd do it in a heartbeat - but the potential losses+ outweigh the gains%. + admittedly, I'm not even sure what the worst case scenarios are, but that just makes them even scarier. % ooooh, I might learn that I have a predisposition to alcoholism and rectal cancer? That's nothing that my Russian father coul…

> If I could do so anonymously, I'd do it in a heartbeat

Even if you did they still could identify you if e.g. one of your relatives also submitted a sample.

Re: Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads

#40

Post by pavel_lishin »

DavidAdams wrote: post #33
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mormons use ancestry.com data to proxy-baptize your ancestors into their ridiculous death cult.

Mormons use genealogy data to proxy-baptize their own ancestors. Like many Christians, they have a rather literal interpretation of the New Testament: if you don't get baptized, you won't be "saved." Like many Christian denominations, they also believe that not any old baptism will do. You have to be baptized by someone with the proper authority and in the proper way (by immersion). Unlike most Christians, they belie…

I wonder how they account for people who died unbaptized and childless. I'm baking a descendant now, but what happens if a comet strikes New York tomorrow?
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