You too can send your DNA to the FBI
This konspiracy theory just became conspiracy fact.
The decision by a prominent consumer DNA-testing company to share data with federal law enforcement means investigators have access to genetic information linked to hundreds of millions of people.FamilyTreeDNA, an early pioneer of the rapidly growing market for consumer genetic testing, confirmed late Thursday that it has granted the Federal Bureau of Investigation access to its vast trove of nearly 2 million genetic profiles... The latest arrangement marks the first time a commercial testing company has voluntarily given law enforcement access to user data.
...The genealogy community expressed dismay.
Now if you are thinking "I wouldn't be dumb enough to fall for this like my brother/sister/cousin did." Well, guess what?
One person sharing genetic information also exposes those to whom they are closely related. That’s how police caught the alleged Golden State Killer. A study last year estimated that only 2 percent of the population needs to have done a DNA test for virtually everyone’s genetic information to be represented in that data.
...On a case-by-case basis, the company has agreed to test DNA samples for the FBI and upload profiles to its database, allowing law enforcement to see familial matches to crime-scene samples.
So your moron cousin is all Big Brother needs to screw your whole family.
Of course law enforcement aren't the only ones with access to your records.
Both Ancestry and 23andMe have a history of sharing anonymized consumer data with private companies, also known as "third parties." Last week, 23andMe took that policy to a new level when it announced a plan to share the genetic data of millions of consumers with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to help the company develop new drugs.23andMe also collaborates with handful of other drug companies and with institutions like P&G Beauty, the company behind Pantene shampoo and the antacid Pepto-Bismol.
Helix, the genetics-testing company spun out of Illumina, has partnerships with roughly 25 companies as well.
Apart from its partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, 23andMe has active partnerships with at least four other large pharmaceutical companies: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, Pfizer, and Genentech.Another 23andMe collaborator is P&G Beauty, the company behind products like Crest toothpaste, Ivory soap, and Bounty paper towels. In addition to these private partners, 23andMe shares its data with several public academic institutions and nonprofit research groups like the University of Chicago.
For those of you thinking "Well, I still want to know my family tree history" I have a message for you.
Do it the old-fashioned way you lazy bums! Or pay someone to do it for you.
Speaking as someone who actually did the hard work of researching my family tree the old-fashioned way, it's what you are actually looking for anyway.
A DNA test will only give you probabilities and percentages. Which is nothing more than a best guess at your genealogy.
That is NOT your family tree.
Your family tree involves names, dates and places. It involves pictures and stories.
It does NOT involve percentages of anything.
Either you want to know your family tree, or you want someone else's guess.
Comments
Million veteran Program...
Also involves genetic testing and they push Veterans to fill out complex questionnaires to supposedly track "Risk Factors." Same end result, and you don't even get the carrot of finding out "Where you're from."
I stupidly gave blood... but then completely "Forgot" to fill out the paperwork. For 3 years... Maybe I'll get lucky.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
There's a much greater problem (than most realize) here
About 9-10 years ago, I was at business meetings at large tech firm in Texas and, in my meetings with the company, I learned that they were aware of many health insurance companies that were very quietly engaged in analytics-related "research" regarding genetic testing results and related scorecard analysis of health insurance applicant pools. (i.e.: predictive analytics to determine a person's healthcare needs/corporate risk).
Think about that for a moment!?!?
At what point does this type of invasion of one's privacy stop?
The truth is there's so much money involved (and to be made from business "risk prevention"), that this type of screening--whether it's for medical purposes, employment, or whatever--is one very small step away from a brutally invasive society that determines, in advance, the odds of one's lifespan, medical costs, employability profile/employment track, etc., etc. Essentially, we're talking about a society controlled by analytics.
This fully-invasive "analytics" effort is already taking hold in multiple sectors across society; and most folks are unaware of it. Scorecarding (similar to credit scoring, as it exists, today) and analytics for things such as employment screening, prisoner recidivism in the penal system (relating to parole decisions), divorce proceedings (i.e.: believe it or not, there are actually scorecards used by lawyers these days for sexual proclivities, such as likelihood of infidelity, actual sexual preference, etc.) already exists!
MINORITY REPORT ("pre-crime," etc.) and GATTACA writ large; it's already here! Most don't know it yet, however. There's simply too much money to be made for big business to ignore these "opportunities." Yeah, it's quite f*cked up!
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
It's so ironic
that this is happening in a country that prides itself on its sense of "individualism"; with no pushback from said individuals.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Too many people are writing what they think MUST be...
these days. Used to be people wrote these stories as cautionary tales, hoping that people would stop it before it got to that point.
At this point however, it feels too much like Demolition man.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz4HEEiJuGo]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I would think people could sue to be paid.
Afterall, it is my data they are using. Or has the court decided that my DNA doesn't belong to me?
On the bright side, I did do my family tree the hard way, and I used the info to get my dual Italian citizenship and an Italian passport. We had to park in a parking structure next to the Embassy. When we came back to get our car, we could see it but not get to it. So we "climbed the wall" and made it home.
Oh the irony.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
In a country where the constitution was still in effect
of course this would be illegal. Just like you learned about your ancestry the old fashioned way, law enforcement should have to that too.
I don't know if there was small print on the websites where people uploaded their DNA to allow them to sell it to 3rd parties, but there is no small print in the constitution. Congress has allowed our internet providers to sell our browsing history after the republicans blocked the legislation on this that was on Obama's list of things to pass last minute going out the door. Did we give up that right too? Oh well. Since the patriot act was signed, Bush was right. It's just a gawd damn piece of paper.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Yes, it's in google's fine print also.
And AOL's, surely Facebook's and probably your ISP. I do know that for providing the service, Wowway Inc, asserts the right to examine all your transmissions and received data "to ensure compliance with the DMCA". The way to beat that is get a VPN in Sweden. Then your computer sends everything in encrypted form to the service in Sweden who retransmit in the clear but with one of their ip addresses instead of yours. same thing happens on the return path. Other companies offer this service including some in the USA, but I'd trust the Swedes first. There are also "free" services but anything free is worth what you pay for it.
Your DNS services (often provided "free" by your ISP) also examine and collate your transmissions and sell them to advertisers.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
All your data are belong to us
Meanwhile Julian Assange rots away in the UK. What we don't know will be our downfall.
I always assumed they were selling the information.
Pretty much every possible corrupt act is already occurring if :
1) it is technologically possible, and
2) it can be monetized and profitable.
On a related topic, I believe many of the corporate and institutional data "breaches" are just cover stories for when insiders sell the data to the government and want to cover their asses if the data inexplicably turns up somewhere it shouldn't.
Glad to hear that I'm not alone in thinking that
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
@entrepreneur As I've repeated it,
As I've repeated it, numerous times: "If it's online, and it's free, YOU are the product." And, now, we move to stage two: "If it's a service relating to personal information, and you're paying for it, and you don't read the fine print when you sign up, YOU are the product."
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
I wanted to know about genetic diseases.
And found that indeed I have a double dose of bad genes for macular degeneration. Both my parents had it. I don't seem to have any Parkinson's genes though. My wife has a double dose of epsilon 4 for Alzheimer's. Doctor says that can be delayed by diet and drugs, particularly keeping LDL down. also, she is a carrier for PKU. luckily in the '60s all (or most) states started mandatory PKU testing on new borns.
Did learn interesting stuff. Found out my wife is 10% Irish. We researched back to 1846. no Irish. seems that almost all modern Norwegians are 10% Irish due to the vast number of slaves that Vikings brought back to Norway around a thousand years ago. (Yes, there were white slaves too) and as suspected (because fifty years ago I read in a biology book an example of a rare Y chromosome gene originating in West Africa) I have 0.2% from West Africa.
My wife has 0.1% from East Asia but zero from Southern Europe. Blood's a rover.
Science is neither good nor bad. That is province of humans and what they do with their knowledge.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I have no qualms about being in a public genetic data bank.
I think it's a good thing for criminals to be identified. Would be a big help identifying orphans too.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Like they say
If you aren't guilty of something then you've got nothing to hide.
It's not just "being in a public data bank"
DNA doesn't just show you who your cousins are.
Your DNA carries an immense amount of intimate information about you --much more than a credit report or one of those online "people searches", which are intrusive enough themselves.
Your DNA shows your vulnerabilities and weaknesses, as well as your potential strengths, talents and proclivities. Those can be physiological, neurological, intellectual, and psychological.
If we lived in a world where we could trust the corporations and the government not to use that information for nefarious purposes, perhaps I wouldn't mind having my data in a public bank.
But we do not live in such a world at present.
Imagine how our DNA information could be used -- to squash potential revolutions, to wipe out bothersome portions of the populace, or to manipulate people to behave in ways desirable to TPTB, and to do so with pinpoint accuracy.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
I don't think science is at that point.
My DNA doesn't show my bank accounts and passwords nor my tax refund password nor my "MySSA" password. That's what I worry about.
They do warn you that you may find things out that you don't want to know, like your father isn't your father and your adopted when you thought you weren't or your kid isn't your kid.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Unfortunately
there are DNA markers for just about anything, and we already have, or are in a position to develop, ways to exploit that.
Most people are too darned overwhelmed and just trying to make it through their lives. They're focused on the immediate details, such as (as you mentioned) whether the balance in their bank acccount is going to make it to the end of the month.
Most folks do not have the time or energy to look at the bigger picture. But there are people who are looking at it. Some undoubtedly for good (the cure for diseases, for instance), and some not so good.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
@The Voice In the Wilderness Heh! Well, consider
Heh! Well, consider this: the new FICO Ultra credit scorecard DOES provide your bank account information, with regard to credit scoring. In fact,--I'm in the personal/private information business, as far as consumer credit scoring, scorecard creation and related decisioning is concerned--access to approximately 70%-75% of ALL personal bank accounts are now facilitated, in REAL TIME, by mutliple consumer credit data information services; and, customized consumer credit scoring for corporations now includes this information as an "add-on" option for credit scorecarding platforms throughout the country.
(Most people don't realize it, but the FICO scorecards and the Vantage scorecards are just two of the better-known brands of scorecards. There are thousands of scorecards out there, in fact, all created/customized for a particular business vertical/purpose, etc., etc.: mortgage scorecard, automotive scorecard, credit card scorecard, healthcare scorecard, tenant scorecards, etc., etc. Virtually every major bank, and most of the mid-sized and smaller banks, as well as most major retailers, healthcare firms, insurance companies, etc., etc., for that matter, create their own customized scorecards, based upon their particular applicant history/pool.)
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
Oh yes
And when they are breacvhed and nearly 200,000,000 people's data record it's "Oh Well, you should freeze your credit and forget about re-financing a mortgage or buying a car or getting a new credit card."
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
The fun part of genealogy research is traveling the country,
seeing the sights, and then spending the next day buried in documents in the basement of the County Records Department, finding that hand-written note by your great-great-great grandfather giving your great-great grandmother permission to marry at the age of 15; tromping through cemeteries in the snow, looking for your great-aunt Mildred; meeting your third cousin twice removed who promises to dig through the attic with you to find those old photographs of Great-great-grandfather Wilbur that he knows is up there somewhere; going to your great-great-Aunt Nelda's 98th Birthday party, in the house she was born in!
You can't get any of that in a kit.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
True
I remember the trip we made to a small town in Michigan near Frankfort Michigan where my wife's grandfather had a small farm. People still remembered him. A lady there, not related just a family friend, drove us around to a little cemetery where his grave was and showed us the town, culminating with Sunday dinner at her house with her family. The weather is moderate, the town being on the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The food in the little grocery store and butcher shop was incredibly fresh, being locally grown, not transshipped from China or Mexico. My wife said, "Did you see that meat? I've never seen meat that looked so good." I told he, "That roast was probably mooing in a pasture yesterday." I seriously considered retiring there until they told me (casually!) about expecting eight foot snow drifts. The township clerk was extremely pleasant and helpful with the research into births, deaths, and property transfers.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
just as with DNA, there can be "unpleasant" surprises.
i knew a guy who traveled back to the village in Ireland whence had come that part of his family that gave him his surname. there were no remaining members of the family, but they were cheerfully remembered as having been English. his whole Irish identity went down the drain. oops.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Well they were English who wanted to be irish - no bad thing.
Once I visited Jackson's plantation near Nashville. Part of the tour was a visit to the slave cabins. I was appalled. Jail cells was more like it. There were several African-Americans in the tour group. They made no comment, but I wondered what they thought. Perhaps they just wanted to see what their ancestors endured.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
For decades
the rumor rumbling around my family was that we were related to the Bronte sisters, fathered by Patrick Brunty, my surname.
Didn't take long to discover that none of the sisters had children that survived childhood. Nor the son, Branwell. In fact, Patrick Brunty outlived all his children.
Quite a definitive letdown.
His father, Hugh Brunty, is a possible relation though.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I'm related to David Lloyd George
some politician from England. This is a picture of my great, great aunt in a Wales church. Anyone see the devil in her shall?
Sian Owen
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
My mother's side.
My mother told me they were ethnic Germans living in Austria-Hungary. My grandfather's naturalization papers said he came from Michaly in Hungary. A Romanian guy I once worked with said that is in Romania now, but confirmed that many Hungarians lived there. I expected to see this reflected in my DNA, but there was only a pinch of German-French (and her maiden name, spelled in German and pronounced the way they told me in German class sounds suspiciously French). My DNA results said I was 55% Italian. That means that 5% had to come from my mother. Even more because surely my 3% Sardinian came from my Italian grandparents. The result including a sizeable chunk of Arab-MidEastern was a mish mash of every ethnic group in the the Eastern empire. That Arab could have come from my father too as Palermo, hometown to my paternal grandmother's family was the capitol of Muslim Sicily.
And Austria-Hungary is the epicenter of battles between Empires since late Roman times.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Another great, informative post, gjohnsit!
In a comment here, earlier this week, I mentioned that I was going to do one of those DNA tests. So much for that! Really appreciate the head's-up.
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
This part, LITERALLY made my stomach get a churning kind of knot
Frightening
.
To paraphrase a line in a movie, once upon a time,
and to post a clip from same movie that sums up how I feel about it; because, we really do lose in the end.
[video:https://youtu.be/aHjRQJZsUGg]
We really have stepped into a very dangerous spot.
We're on the express elevator to hell... Goin DOWN!
However, I still have hope. Otherwise I wouldn't continue.
Course, I also admit that I'm loving living in Oregon, and I intend to embrace my dreams as antidote to the despair of the world. Hell with the dreams manufactured by committee...
And something random that inspires me to keep trying, because I admit, when I was a kid, this got me through some hard times.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxLhytQ67fs]
Trying to be positive today. Things didn't go according to plan, but instead of wallowing, did a five mile walk with the kids, went out to lunch and did good things for the family. One day at a time.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Stasi on steroids
Giddyup trigger and the tin foil has melted to my head now. Thanks a lot. There's an old polaroid instant photo of moi wearing a black triangle on my shirt, to signify my social status as queer. It was also for disabled I found out later, after becoming "one of those" too. But in the 90s I was a baby queer activist and proud of it.
I worked for Broderbund when they bought Banner Blue, the Family TreeMaker CD-ROM people. Mormons every one. My first task was to figure out how to upgrade 300 machines in San Mateo from my chair in Novato, that was fun and interesting. The business itself was a total ripoff, I thought. Profiting from public research records, locking all behind a paywall of pla$tic, later online with pa$$words. Ripping off granny for all she was worth. PIRATES
Why bring religion in to it, kicks my guts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_Mormonism
Mormons and Jews: What 2 Religions Say About the Modern Dating Crisis modern four years ago
What better way to find a date for the offspring of elites? Is Kissinger dead yet? Sounds like something he would think up and execute. The guy excels at execution, no? arbeit macht frei
Fascists march in Auschwitz
31 January 2019
Quality of results remains to be seen
And it depends on how data is being used and interpreted. Science is pretty good on genetic markers for various diseased and conditions, comparative DNA evidence and suspects and paternity/maternity testing. But if the FBI is trying to screen DNA for profiling possible suspect- that's a lot like the commercial test which aren't necessarily reliable.
Identical twins test DNA kits
If identical twins aren't getting matching results, your process is seriously messed up. I can't see it holding up in court. Not yet.
Some day, yes, there will be enough research done to make it more reliable, but that is years away. The problem is statistical and what they need is data. Lots of data and people will be willing to contribute.
Sadly, I think it is inevitable that it will be an accessible database eroding our privacy. (Just as accessible as my SS#, address, phone # etc has become on the internet./s) Privacy in the USA just isn't considered that important when that data can be monetized.
Exactly
My question is: "Can someone point out which gene exactly is the 'Irish' gene? Or the 'German' gene? Or the 'Indian' gene?"
DNA/Genes don't work that way. They don't recognize national borders.
I question the entire premise these tests are based on.
There is a premise
on which those DNA tests are based.
Unfortunately, it's not the premise on which it's being sold to American consumers (and that's what we've devolved into: consumers, not people.)
I've been immersed in genealogical research for 15 years now. It takes a lot of focused effort and critical thinking to do it right. Most people don't want to work that hard. They want quick and easy answers. They want new and shiny.
Voila!
"Take our new DNA test and find out where you came from! Get ready to be shocked and amazed. You might not be who you think you are! Won't that be fun?! Only $79.99 [... and here's a lot of tiny print you don't need to worry your pretty head over]."
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
@Centaurea This!
This!
It was rummaging about my subconscious but I couldn't get it to congeal into words.
As I've mentioned before, by the time you get 8
generations back, there are ancestors from whom you've inherited not one single base of DNA.
The math is pretty straightforward.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.