[mcculley]

No, I would not accept it. For me, personally, my choices and outcomes are more personal than the immutable attributes I was born with. My browser history is more sensitive to me than my DNA.

I am intrigued that someone might genuinely think otherwise. Would anyone rather have their browser history published over their DNA?

[dane-pgp]

You're probably right that most people think of their browser history as more secret or sensitive than their DNA, and maybe we're just disagreeing over semantics here, but "personal" can have a significantly different connotation.

One way to look at it is that someone's choices (and the pages they've visited) are things in their past, and even a medical diagnosis could be old news if they've since been cured. Their unique DNA signature, on the other hand, has been with them since before they were born, and will remain with them, largely unchanged, for the rest of their life, and even some time beyond. (Their DNA may also have a big effect on when they die, and the sort of life they live while they are alive too).

That's why DNA feels to me like it's an intrinsic part of someone's personhood, in a way that "They visited Hacker News yesterday" doesn't.