23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
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&#x27;t know a single person who would even consider using 23andMe&#x27;s service.<p>To me this is all an elaborate scam. Why on earth would <i>you pay them</i> to <i>give</i> them <i>your data</i>?! At least with Google et al. we know that if you are not paying for the product, you <i>are</i> the product. With this company you end up $100 (or whatever) short <i>and</i> you surrender your data for it to be sold to advertisers, insurance companies and whatnot. And not just stupid things like your Amazon shopping history or your latest Tinder conversations (which are in themselves pretty <i>damn</i> intimate if you ask me) but the most intimate thing of all. I actually disagree with behavioral genetics&#x2F;sociobiology fundamentalists who think there&#x27;s little more to the self than one&#x27;s DNA, but just because one cannot make much out of it doesn&#x27;t mean it can&#x27;t be misused. If Gattaca implications sound scary, imagine what would happen if the decision makers had no idea what they were doing in the first place.<p>Because that&#x27;s where we are at this point: just because X variant is associated with Y% more incidence of whatever disease does <i>not</i> mean extra care should be taken regarding risk factors, insurance policies, etc. The correlations are interesting when combined with other data but most of the time we have no idea what&#x27;s going on and what it is that makes variant X cause disease Y, if it does at all. Doesn&#x27;t mean it won&#x27;t be misused.<p>Please people, don&#x27;t pay to get your data swindled out of you. Stop with this weird fascination with your DNA, and stop trying to look for an answer when are barely asking the questions.