Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Terr_ 969 days ago
I can think of a few scenarios that have different conditions/threats:

1. Something that would normally be your own secret to control which is used against you, like discovering you're suddenly un-insurable for condition X that you might not even have known you could get. Other variations in the space include embarrassment/blackmail or aggressive marketing.

2. Exploitation without "fair" compensation, such as if your family has a history of a certain expensive health problem and it turns out those genes are also the key to making an unrelated Miracle Cure, but none of that makes its way back to compensate people for the suffering/cost that enabled the benefit to everyone else.

3. Re-sharing with governments or law-enforcement, bypassing other rights/protections you would normally have.

1 comments

1. Re: insurance buying the data to be used against you. This seems like a problem that could be solved by other regulatory venues w.r.t. pre-existing conditions in insurance.

2. This is a dramatic overreach of intellectual property. I put in no effort to create my genes and certainly should not be able to withhold certain beneficial amino acid sequences from being used by others simply because I exist. Not to mention the fact that the same gene is probably present in millions of people. Clearly I am not going to do the work to monetize some gene and help save people, so the people who do the actual work should be able to profit from it (unless you think it's better if people who could benefit from it just die). Fair compensation is zero; any finder's fee awarded in such an unlikely technical scenario would be gratuitous.

3. Governments already have this as soon as 23-and-me exists. Whether or not the data was for sale is irrelevant to Uncle Sam.

1. They'll still do it anyway. See VW and the diesel emissions scandal.