23andMe's meltdown: How to protect your DNA from falling into wrong hands

You also can’t really change your genetic data. At least with passwords and emails i can do something about that, but my personal info including fingerprints and DNA is immutable. Unless i want to throw my brain into a robot.

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Anyone that attempts to clone me is a much greater fool than I would have imagined.

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Chevy Chase Reaction GIF

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That’s the point, it’s not recoverable. :person_shrugging:

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The 23andMe breach specifically targeted Jewish DNA. Anyone who thinks Project 2025 is only starting to get rolling has no appreciation for how long the Christian Nationalists have been working to build their foundation.

Do you have Jewish, Roma, or African heritage? Do you have any of the many sex chromosome issues that are not visible to the naked eye, like XXY? Do you have any risk factors for disorders or disabilities that would make you less than an Übermensch?

And just because we don’t know all the SNPs responsible now doesn’t mean they won’t hang onto the data for when more is known.

When people want to harm you, it doesn’t matter that you’re not doing anything wrong.

Oh, and congratulations on having health insurance right now. Are you 100% protected from ever losing that job and thus that insurance?

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I’m glad you were able to find what you were looking for and you currently have health insurance.

As several others have already mentioned, the data breach of 23andMe and the upcoming sale of massive amounts of DNA information may not be personally harmful to you. I certainly hope no country is moving into a future where insurers will be permitted to discriminate on the basis of genetic markers for certain kinds of diseases. Maybe your DNA results didn’t show any of those markers. But maybe your DNA does contain markers that haven’t been discovered yet.

If if that kind of capitalist dystopia is not actually in our future, I suppose it ultimately boils down to how much you care about other people. People who have to hide from their abusers or their stalkers. Members of vulnerable populations who could be targeted by white supremacists or other bigots. Innocent people accused of crimes that they didn’t actually commit who could be tracked down with this information. The information sold won’t just be the DNA results. It’ll probably also be addresses, credit card numbers, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses. Information that will allow the DNA results to be connected to all of the other information that’s already out there.

I doubt anyone who used 23andMe or any of the other DNA testing companies ever consciously consented to having their genetic information sold for a profit. Even if they did, there’s all the people whose parents submitted their DNA without their consent when they were children.

The bottom line is that no one should be selling information this private and intimate. It’s wrong.

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I really feel for high school and college instructors these days. I would not be able to handle reading stuff like that over and over again.

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I am confused. To what are you referring?

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Is it something I said?

This, so much.