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23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

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Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#51

Post by toyg »

noahth wrote: post #46
smougel wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With this company you end up $100 (or whatever) short and you surrender your data for it to be sold to ... .... insurance companies and whatnot. False ! Source : https://www.23andme.com/about/privacy/ We will not provide any person’s data (genetic or non-genetic) to an insurance company or employer.

Some great things about companies that you can always count on: - They never change their terms of service - The demand for constant growth never causes them to reconsider ethically dubious revenue streams - They never get acquired

- they never fail and liquidate assets in a hurry

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#52

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

I'm curious of the legitimacy of this story, given one of the comments at the bottom:

> Don’t believe the results. I’m retired FDA and investigated this company since its inception. 23and me swabs go to labcorp in NC. They aren’t a lab. They take the results and issue what is tantamount to a horoscope based on your demographic information. Save your $100 or whatever they are charging now.

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#53

Post by Veen »

spacehome wrote: post #3

You share (about) 1/128 of your genes with a third cousin. The chance of any (particular) recessive trait being passed on from both parents as a result of the inbreeding is a whopping 1 in 65,536.

I'm not an expert on this, so perhaps you could tell me if a family history of cousin marriage increases the likelihood of the recessive trait being passed by both parents. I mean, if for the last 10 generations a family has been marrying cousins to each other and introducing little variation from people outside the family, the odds are increased, right? I'd imagine cultures with a history of cousin marriage, such as the Pakistani community in the UK, are much more prone to this type of problem than when cousins marry, but none of their forbears married a cousin.

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#54

Post by Veen »

fouc wrote: post #37
gadders wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly not all societies/cultures have a taboo against incest: "Couples who are getting married should be forced to have a DNA test first to ensure they are not cousins amid growing concern about incest within Pakistani communities, Britain's first Asian peer has claimed." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11723308/Fi... [EDIT] Additional link from the BBC today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-46558…

>Third-degree relatives (such as half-aunt, half-nephew, first cousin) on average share 12.5% genes, and sexual relations between them are viewed differently in various cultures, from being discouraged to being socially acceptable. Relationships between cousins isn't always considered to be incest. It's more recent in the last 50-60 years, especially in USA, that cousin marriage is frowned upon based on misunderstand…

But is that risk not increased when the family has practiced cousin marriage for many generations?

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#55

Post by gadders »

fouc wrote: post #37
gadders wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly not all societies/cultures have a taboo against incest: "Couples who are getting married should be forced to have a DNA test first to ensure they are not cousins amid growing concern about incest within Pakistani communities, Britain's first Asian peer has claimed." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11723308/Fi... [EDIT] Additional link from the BBC today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-46558…

>Third-degree relatives (such as half-aunt, half-nephew, first cousin) on average share 12.5% genes, and sexual relations between them are viewed differently in various cultures, from being discouraged to being socially acceptable. Relationships between cousins isn't always considered to be incest. It's more recent in the last 50-60 years, especially in USA, that cousin marriage is frowned upon based on misunderstand…

It's not legally incest, but it's not a good idea.

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#56

Post by topmonk »

throwyawaaaa wrote: post #6

I work in genomics. My lab, many of my friends and acquaintances work in genomics or had to dabble with it for at least one of their projects. You would think we would all be fascinated by this stuff, getting to know your own DNA and everything. Yet I don't know a single person who would even consider using 23andMe's service. To me this is all an elaborate scam. Why on earth would you pay them to give them your data…

The thing is, though, if the world becomes as much of a dystopia where the people who have their data on file at 23andme causes some sort of major havoc in their lives, why do you think it will stop there?

Either the world will turn into a dystopia or it won't. If it does, not giving out your DNA sequencing information is, in all likelihood, not going to allow you to avoid getting caught up in it.

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#58

Post by Casseres »

Uberphallus wrote: post #34
qball wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Doesn't mean it won't be misused. To add to this, though genetic information may be protected against defining a pre-existing medical condition for insurance purposes today , there's zero guarantee that that law protecting you will still exist in the future , or extend to your descendants (which can be assumed to carry roughly half of your genetic material). Once you've given this data away without any guarantee tha…

What a group of friends has been doing is, they ordered +10 kits over a year shipped to the very same person, then they each of them spit and register the kit with a disposable email address. The info about the receiver is watered down (if he did one himself, which he didn't) and the rest remain reasonably anonymous as long as they keep using Tor/VPNs. Moreover, these tests are forbidden in France, so these shipments…

Keeping your name and location anonymous doesn't matter. Once a company obtains a family member's DNA information through any other source, they will see a familial correlation, use other records to realize that family member has a brother/sister/etc and might now attribute that once-anonymous DNA record to you.

That's the scary thing about these companies: you might never even use the service, but once a relative does, the company now has information about you.

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#59

Post by simplyinfinity »

throwyawaaaa wrote: post #6

I work in genomics. My lab, many of my friends and acquaintances work in genomics or had to dabble with it for at least one of their projects. You would think we would all be fascinated by this stuff, getting to know your own DNA and everything. Yet I don't know a single person who would even consider using 23andMe's service. To me this is all an elaborate scam. Why on earth would you pay them to give them your data…

What is stopping the labs that do my company mandated health checks to sell my DNA?

What is stopping the government from collecting DNA at birth? yes.. it's not a law.. yet.

Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related

#60

Post by toothbrush9 »

simplyinfinity wrote: post #59
throwyawaaaa wrote: post #6

I work in genomics. My lab, many of my friends and acquaintances work in genomics or had to dabble with it for at least one of their projects. You would think we would all be fascinated by this stuff, getting to know your own DNA and everything. Yet I don't know a single person who would even consider using 23andMe's service. To me this is all an elaborate scam. Why on earth would you pay them to give them your data…

What is stopping the labs that do my company mandated health checks to sell my DNA? What is stopping the government from collecting DNA at birth? yes.. it's not a law.. yet.

if you were born in the state of california after 1966 then the government did collect and is retaining your dna (newborn blood specimen) and it is a law.. already
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