You Should Be Worried About Your DNA Privacy

As DNA tests such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA become increasingly popular, concerns about genetic privacy are mounting—and with good reason, says the Atlantic writer Sarah Zhang. In the latest Atlantic Argument, Zhang explains how the recent spate of arrests that were made due to DNA databases—the most famous being the Golden State Killer—are just the beginning.

“Soon, it won’t be hard to imagine a world where everyone can be found for whatever reason through a relative’s DNA,” Zhang says in the video.

[jozz]

Can also figure your genetic weaknesses, predispositions and yet unknown applications. Sure wouldn't want health insurance companies to have access to this info.

[mmmk]

I've always been worried that another case like Henrietta Lacks will happen. She was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first human cell line to prove successful in vitro, which was a scientific achievement with profound future benefit to medical research. AND SHE WAS NEVER TOLD ABOUT IT! Her family didn't find out til decades later. She had cervical cancer and samples of her tumor were taken as part of a biopsy. Many companies have profited from the research, there have been 2 Nobel prizes won because of research based on her dna. Her family didn't get anything, I don't think. It is so unfair!

[jimdandy]

Send in your dog's saliva under your name and see what comes back.

[tammcd]

If sufficient information to eliminate privacy is _already_ out there, then this video warning is too late.

[SoundBlackRecordings]

I don't think this did the best job of getting its message across. It mainly seems to warn rapists and killers they can be found this way.

[ktms]

Wait until these people try to get life insurance in 30 years and they have public access to all your records with all the releases that are signed and never read.

[kastanjetakesten]

Yesterday I bought one DNA test. It isn't just DNA and family curiosity. It's privacy permission, storage of samples permission, some permissions for cousins, and other permissions. I was scared for my privacy and threw the test in the trash.

[zacharyp]

So basically there is no solution because any one of my relatives could compromise me.

[normanoro]

Clearly, this is good to know. On the one hand, criminals are going to have a tougher time escaping justice. On the other, as these techniques and databases develop, everyone's privacy is potentially endangered. Fortunately, I think people are already thinking about ways to safeguard genetic data to protect privacy when a crime isn't involved. Also, if you're Asian (I'm Filipino-American), the data are sparser, so this isn't as applicable (yet). Of course, in time, that'll change.

[checkthemikecrophone]

Ummmm they already have your dna where do you think blood results and urine samples go?

[jareno]

And it's now coming out that some companies in the UK are selling customers' DNA found on PCR test swabs

[darkrising]

Most scary thing about this for me is health insurance prices

[steviesaccountsteviesaccou]

This only upsets me because my family has already done this, so I don’t get to have a say in my privacy anymore.

[ghostshadow]

Another problem and that is putting it lightly...these companies can match you with those whom are sick and are rich...then you become an unwilling participant in bone marrow extraction. Sounds crazy but I can assure this is happening.

[Anonymous-eoer]

I’m just curious to figure out how Polish I am..

I’ll be fine

[ajrod]

I don't plan on committing any crimes that would make my DNA incriminating, and any one related to me shouldn't either. But still...Bio chemical weapons based off of DNA, hacks, ect., ...and just lost of privacy. Damn! Although I was happy to finally know my true ancestry, I hate the fact that I willingly gave a DNA sample years ago that can be used for almost anything. If I had have known then the things that I know now....ugh!!

[faramund]

I would love to know how my DNA compares to certain groups but I just do not want to give anyone this kind of power over me. So unfortunately I won't take one!

[yesid]

I'm not sure you can come to the conclusion given in the last sentence from the information provided in the video, but it is thought-provoking at the least regardless–the very nature of privacy will undoubtedly change, it will be interesting to watch the change happen over my lifetime

[SuperJhon]

I just started thinking about this today which caused me to come and look up this video.

all the thinking I've done can go down into one cold statement.

"If Hitler had access to this technology Jewish people would be extinct"

All you need to do is read into what this technology does and you'll realize that the statement I made is chilling.

It's bothered me all morning because a lot of people in my family want to do it which means even my DNA is at risk now for exposure even though I wont do it.

If a freedom fighter in a totalitarian regime were to get captured. just from his DNA they can find every single person related to him and use them as leverage to get everything he knows or effectively erase his lineage from the population. It's a very effective tool for a totalitarian regime to take full advantage of. History has already shown that anybody who's related to a "traitor" the sons, mothers fathers, daughters, brothers of a traitor and are considered and treated the same just the same as if they had done it themselves. Not to mention the superiority that some people with "better DNA" could have over people with "damaged DNA."

A lot of people like to make the claim that you shouldn't have to worry if you got nothing to hide, but they always assume that the government never makes mistakes and that the government is never corrupt and that the government will never abuse power. They live in fairy tail land and they need reality to hit them.

Laws of discrimination should be put into the books saying that you can't discriminate, DNA cannot be used as a means of identification or discrimination. The only time the DNA can be resourced from a company or database is if the police or FBI CIA requests it with a warrant. But as it stands currently these companies are allowed to give that information to anyone they want and law enforcement only needs to ask.

If tomorrow in your country they mandated that everyone must come down to a government office and give their fingerprints to be put into the main database, Would you do it.

[RuslanDorfman]

Genome Wide Screening tests used by 23andme and other ancestry testing providers have great power to identify any person with fairly high level of confidence/precision. Targeted gene panels, such as pharmacogenetic tests, are better solution because they offer deeper analysis of specific genes to provide more accurate results, as well as better protect person's privacy. Limited set of markers does limits the ability to identify person uniquely and also does not deal with potential liability of uncovering genetic predisposition to disease.