this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Are any of the DNA testing companies trustworthy? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by Snapz@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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So obviously we're all on Lemmy for a complicated combination of reasons, but we all likely share some common ground, namely...

  • need for privacy
  • need to own/control/access the data we produce
  • healthy skepticism about the trustworthiness of for-profit corporations, in general

So if we don't want meta to know even innocuous things; like how many times/when we message our grandma, and we don't google to know when we're searching for remedies to a rash, and we don't want reddit to... Well we just don't want reddit - we don't want them to profit from or weaponize that data against us in a myriad ways.

We also don't want them artificially removing features and creating tiered layers of service/value hidden behind a paywall (I understand this is very present in the some of the commercially available DNA services).

So that brings me to DNA testing services. Since they started to emerge in the mainstream they were immediately an interesting, exciting novelty and I also knew it was data I wouldn't feel safe trusting with a for-profit org - with broken systems like law enforcement and health insurers on speed dial and just salivating for the goodies they collect.

So all that considered, any groups that provide this type of service that you do trust/use, and why?

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[โ€“] MrSlicer@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your DNA mostly isn't yours anyway. Your siblings are largely the same. I did a 23 and me years ago. No regrets yet. I'm eventually going to die probably in 40-50 years. I just don't see how it can be used against me.

[โ€“] Snapz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

!Remindme in 10 years

That's because you're looking for direct, immediate, tangible impact to yourself personally - respectfully, that's a rather shallow, self-focused view.

Tell me, in detail, how your health/life insurance premiums are calculated? Do you know that data from these companies, even in aggregate, isn't being taken into consideration when they set process for your geographical location?

Certain data used to be off limits to governments, new law gets passed around major events that can change that. With the type of people that have gotten close to our have held power recently, do you want that data collected and in easy reach?

If you have the markers in your genes that predispose you to say alcoholism or drug addiction, would you want vodka companies to be able to ad target you?

Musk showed that billionaires can buy massive corporations at will and use them for their own agendas, do you want all that data accessible for musk or the next musk when one of those hipster-eugenics peddling natalist fascists decides they want a new project to "improve humanity" in their image?

[โ€“] MrSlicer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But everything you said would happen anyway if a close relative took the test.

[โ€“] RemindMe@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Gotcha! I'll remind you at Tuesday, September 28, 2032, 9:45:07 PM UTC.