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23andMe meets FDA standards, adds back wellness reports

blog.23andme.com

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Re: 23andMe meets FDA standards, adds back wellness reports

#91
post #59
post #10

also, I don't trust them with my DNA data anymore.

Can you use a fake name?

Yes. A friend of mine is currently doing this. They used a fake name and paid with a pre-paid Amex "gift card". They had it mailed to a P.O. Box. I believe they may have used VPN and private browsing while ordering and looking at the website, and obviously created a new email account with hotmail, or whomever.

Now, obviously, you're asking them to sequence your genome, so they're getting personally identifiable information. If you have relatives who have done their 23 and me work-up, then they'll be able to tell that "John Doe" is related to Gunther Kumar, or whatever. In my friend's case, that's not likely to be an issue as they have few living relatives, most of whom are very old and would have no interest in 23 and me. YMMV.

Re: 23andMe meets FDA standards, adds back wellness reports

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a massive difference between chasing down one person's DNA and gaining unwarranted access to a consolidated database of millions of genomes.

I'd pose the question, why? From a personal privacy perspective you have a lot more to worry about from the determined actor targeting you than a data breach in which your genome (likely not even linked to any other PII if they have set up their database correctly) is just another entry in a sea of data. On the other side of the the coin, those individually worthless genomes could become valuable to the furthering of…

You have to multiply the expected cost of a privacy violation by the probability of that violation. A targeted attack is exceptionally rare for the vast majority of people. But in a dragnet, the probability is essentially 1.

We can have the benefits of statistical research on our private information without handing the keys to the kingdom over to malicious actors.

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