One Of The Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working With The FBI
My tinfoil hat may be on a bit too tight, but this is one of the reasons I've avoided these DNA tests for years...
One Of The Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working With The FBI
- Thread starter crimsonaudio
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My tinfoil hat may be on a bit too tight, but this is one of the reasons I've avoided these DNA tests for years...
A friend of mine who is in law enforcement (investigator on the drug crime side of things) called this years ago when this service first came out. I remember him posting it on facebook "What do you think these companies are doing with your DNA after you voluntarily give it to them?"
I had been part of a couple of research studies, so my DNA was basically available to anyone in the medical field and, I would assume, law enforcement as well. The results have been very helpful to me with medical issues. So long as the results aren't allowed to be used to, for example, to deny health insurance (they can't be, under current law), I don't have a big problem with it...
My wife and I watch entirely too many shows on Netflix such as Blacklist etc. So our tinfoil hats and black helicopters paints me concerned regarding a service like this. But I agree, if this is what they are doing it should be disclosed in an obvious manner on the front end.
I have no problem with it if disclosed in an obvious manner up front. The FBI has used these databases to catch some bad guys. It could be used for nefarious purposes, though.
This is why I am more likely to trust a government than a corporation. The corporation has no responsibility other than to make profit. At least in theory the government works in service of all of us.
It may sound like splitting hairs, but the company says that it'll never sell or disclose any information except to law enforcement...
This is nefarious enough for me.
The difference to me is whether they do so because they have to because of a warrant or court order regarding a specific person, or if they just go ahead and make it available for a fishing expedition.
Until the executives really need to make a good quarterly report and they start selling it to our insurers or whatever.
I'm in this same boat. When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's I entered into a database to track what happens with me as my only living sibling did.
IMO you have it backwards. A business doesn't last long by not providing its customers a desired good/service at a favorable price. A business can't make a profit if it doesn't have customers to willingly give the business money. Failure to treat its customers right leads to the competition killing that business in a free market. Government has no such competition to keep it honest. Government can offer up lies of serving the public, but history is thick with its abuses.
I suspect that a lot of people have their DNA spread around who don't know it. I actually carry around a card with my CYP450 alleles on it. The problem is I usually have to explain it to doctors...
The funny thing is that the ancestry part of these tests isn't all that accurate anyway. Its a statistical guess about where you might be from and varies based on which company you use.
I do know people who have found long lost relatives through though.
I do know people who have found long lost relatives through though.
My beef with the DNA services is that I have limited confidence that the geographic interpretations are correct. My father's DNA testing said he was 4% North African. Not doubting that I have north African blood, but how did he get 4%? (50%, 25%, 12.5%, 6.25%, 3.125%, etc.) 4%?
Here's what I think. they take your money. Put your name on a dart, throw it at a dartboard, give you the results. Who's ever gonna know, right?
Here's what I think. they take your money. Put your name on a dart, throw it at a dartboard, give you the results. Who's ever gonna know, right?
On some of the websites they say they say they have a confidence level of "50%" and I'm sure others say lower. So, yea they really don't know. And if you use to multiple sites/labs you'll get variations. Plus they often update their guesses a year or 2 later and suddenly the results are very different.
There was a youtube video of identical twins who sent in their dna to a bunch of different sites and it kinda shows how inaccurate these things are.
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