[tapland]

You are contributing to it though. You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA.

It reads like 'people like me are out there and don't care, so if you do you have to move to the remaining square kilometers of Jungle'

[llamataboot]

I don't think so, it reads like the surveillance state is so pervasive, the risks of leaking data to it so ever-present, and the possible use of that data in the future in ways we couldn't have guessed is largely a collective-action problem that likely can only be solved with laws, rather than individuals opting in or out of everything.

[tapland]

The commented completely missed the fact that they are contributing to building the mass surveillance that covers OTHERS that don't opt in. You can't opt out of 23 and me since your relatives opt in for you.

The US does not collect everyone's DNA at birth, and there would be some pushback against that. But there isn't against 23 and me because few care about others.

[awb]

> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA.

Noob question, but how does this work?

[alistairSH]

Roughly... Crime is committed, police find DNA sample at scene, police compare sample with online DNA registry, hits as a near-match for personX, police now know that a sibling/cousin of personX is the culprit. That sibling/cousin never allowed their own DNA to be collected.

This happened in 2018... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27...

[mindslight]

... police now think that ...

To me, that is the real threat - false positives. myopic reliance on the database, and an assumption the computer is always correct.

[tapland]

Your DNA is extremely similar to your close relatives.

Those murderers found through 23 and me data? They didn't submit their DNA, their family members did.

[stevenicr]

I may have a story saved on an old sd card somewhere.. but I think it was Italian? A major crime was solved by pattern matching DNA to a close relative, which brought about a few people in the town who's DNA was 90(?)% similar or something.. they did find the killer/rapist whatever they were looking for..

but the process of investigating and questioning led investigators, family members, and through rumor / whispering and news articles to discover that one of the grandparents (of a well known family) had cheated and birthed a love child that was assumed to be of whatever family name.. and then they had kids - and they all had positions in the town.. but now the truth was known that none of those grand kids, their families, etc were actually part of the whatever-family-name dynasty.

A whole group of people and a town and some industries changed forever because dna is similar (and much dna is not as well) - and the use of this technique roping in and affecting others that had nothing to do with alleged crime - certainly can have other real world consequences.