[chrsstrm]

Preventing 23andMe from directly linking a subject's genome to a name, cc, and mailing address would be nice, but what prevents them from comparing the test results to other subjects who have submitted samples? If my genetic relatives have also been tested by 23andMe then filling in the relationship graph doesn't seem too difficult, especially if given access to other social graphs. Does 23andMe offer certified isolated analysis?

[make3]

good point, but on the short term at least, it would be pretty surprising if a sufficient amount of people took the test for that to be an actual preoccupation, lest you have reasons to think members in your family would specially likely to get the test (ie, history of genetic illnesses or a geeky uncle interested in biotech)

[chrsstrm]

Ancestry.com currently has a big marketing spend on pushing their DNA service to determine a person's ancestral origins. The FAQ [0] implies that Ancestry operates their own lab, but who knows what happens behind the scenes or where that test is outsourced to (23andMe maybe?). Of course the more likely scenario is that the Ancestry test normalizes providing a sample in exchange for information that regular people would be amazed by. If the test from Company A could tell me specifically what my ancestral makeup is (which is something Americans in general are fascinated with), what can the test from Company B tell me about my health?

I mean sure, I could be way off, but I could also totally see any of my family members taking the test out of curiosity and I don't see any of them announcing it beforehand. I totally see the genealogy use case as a gateway drug to making this more popular.

[0] https://www.ancestry.com/dna/en/legal/us/faq#about-3