Comment on Drugmakers Are Set to Pay 23andMe Millions to Access Consumer DNA
eager_eagle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
23andMe will provide GSK with one year of access to anonymized DNA data from the approximately 80% of gene-testing customers who have agreed to share their information for research
I see no problem with that. Idk what’s newsworthy here tbh.
stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
The problem is that just because you are ok with sharing your data (even if you don’t understand the potential consequences), your close family and any decendants aren’t able to consent or not consent to their shared genetic data being given to these corporations.
How would you feel about your children being unable to get insurance coverage because a close relative used the service and the insurance company decided they were at too high risk for expensive medical problems due to similarity of genes?
atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
To be clear, this is a made-up scenario that would be illegal under current US law.
macgyveringIt@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
Companies break laws all the time. The punishment is frequently small compared to profits from the crime.
atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Vague nihilism doesn’t dispute what I said
stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
The law here is inconsequential. The only protection that is certain is for the data not to exist.
atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
It’s very much not.
eager_eagle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Just pissed off at the insurers, as usual. But seeing it as a data privacy issue misdirects from the actual problem, which is the genetic discrimination and lack of proper regulation (if that would to ever happen). We don’t need to go to hypothetical scenarios of insurance companies scavenging for genetic data - they could simply start demanding genetic tests upon sign-up, which would void the whole discussion.
deranger@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You don’t need 23&Me to do sketchy stuff for this to happen. They’ll just get your DNA from another blood test. They could simply provide a sizable discount to those who enroll and make the premium for “non genetic” insurance rather high in comparison.
It’s one of the most stable physical data formats. It’s not hard to get someone’s DNA, nor is it hard to analyze these days. You also don’t need DNA to discriminate; they can just find parallel traits and use those.
I dunno, none of this worries me that much. DNA is not that special in my mind. I leave it everywhere I go. It’s not private data in the slightest - you just don’t know how to read it.