My neighbor admitted she sold her kids' genetic data for $50 a pop, and I still can't figure out if that's worse than what 23andMe does

Ran into her at the recycling center in Portland last Saturday and she said it was just 'free money' but now I'm wondering where the line really is between giving up your own data and signing away your kids' information without them knowing, what do you all think?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_brian1mo ago

Honestly, have you tried looking into the fine print of those direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies? I've dealt with this exact kind of thing before, and the reality is both are sketchy but in different ways. At least with 23andMe your kid's DNA is in some big corporate database that they lease to pharma companies, but your neighbor is selling to who knows who on a one-off basis. Ngl, I'd be way more worried about the random buyer who could link that data back to your kid through public records than a company that at least has some rules about de-identifying stuff. Tbh, the real line is consent, and a 10 year old can't say yes to having their spit sold for fifty bucks at a recycling center.

park.miles1mo ago

Oh man, that's a good point about the public records thing, I hadn't even thought of that angle. I saw this piece on NPR a while back about how easy it is to re-identify people from supposedly anonymous DNA data just by cross referencing with genealogy sites. So even if the big companies say they de-identify stuff, it's not really bulletproof. And @the_thomas, yeah the clone army joke is funny but honestly it's not far off from what some of these biotech startups are actually trying to do with genetic sequencing. The whole thing just feels like we're giving away something we can't get back, and for a kid who can't even drive yet, that's messed up. I'd rather just tell my kid their great-grandpa was from Ireland based on the family stories and save the spit for something that actually matters.

the_thomas1mo ago

I mean, at least 23andMe gives you a cool map of where your great-great-grandpa cheated on his taxes, so that's gotta be worth something, right? Selling your kid's spit for $50 is basically getting paid the same amount as a decent used video game, except the buyer now knows little Timmy might have a lactose intolerance gene. Idk, maybe the real question is which one is secretly building a better clone army first.