[kimos]

Thank you for saying this.

I’ve done some of these saliva samples and I’ve seen the freak outs about what happens if “they” get my genome. But I cannot for the life of me figure out what they would do with it maliciously? It’s not like it can be used to sign up for a credit card or whatever.

[ceejayoz]

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act gets repealed. Insurers immediately buy their database and drop you because you’re statistically more likely to get an illness.

[prolly97]

Luckily most of us live in democracies, where we can just decide whether we want the rules to allow this kind of differentiation.

[ceejayoz]

Yes, that's the middle-school civics ideal.

Then we learn about the perils of "majority rules" setups, of lobbying, of trying to evaluate thousands of different decisions across hundreds or thousands of legislators, etc. and it becomes a lot less simple.

[deadbabe]

You live in a democracy until you don’t. It can disappear overnight with the stroke of pen from some populist leader who just ignores laws. Never think you are safe just because you’re in a democracy.

[Symmetry]

If a future totalitarian government wants to save money on medical treatments then they can just euthanize anyone who gets cancer rather than euthanizing anyone whose genes say that they have a 50%+ greater risk than average of getting cancer. Or collect genetic samples themselves and use that to cull the population rather than just do it for people who were 23andMe customers.

[deadbabe]

Killing people off after they get cancer saves money but it does nothing for the gene pool if they already reproduced. Individuals who represent high cancer risks can be forced into sterilization and can consider other options for children in the future, such as adoption or raising a genetic alternative child. Totalitarian regimes can take note here.

[kelipso]

You're going from 0 and 1 but there's a lot of time and politicking during which society is in the transition period.

[jokethrowaway]

or revert our diets to 1920 - no need to kill anyone :)

(but I get your point and I agree)

[DrAwdeOccarim]

My favorite thriller story idea comes from knowing a character’s SNPs that are also covered by the standard forensic DNA panel. Then the antagonist in the story buys a bunch of oligos that flank the panel targets and spreads them around the crime scene to “frame” the character for murder!

So once the ‘’’bad guys’’’ purchase the 23andme database, the story is complete! They can then frame our protagonist…

[vintermann]

It makes entertaining fiction, but in the real world, the ways that can be used to lock you up and discredit you in the public's eye are much more banal. And I doubt they'll get more sophisticated the way things look in the US right now.

[navigate8310]

With all those sweeping upgrades to artificial generational technologies, a time will come where no one will trust audio-visual clues and evidence collection will be solely focused on DNA fingerprints.

[Metacelsus]

Yeah, this is definitely possible (and I'd bet the CIA et al already have this capability)

[snovv_crash]

...or they just use your Dropbox deamon to dump a bunch of CP on your harddrive and then send in the FBI.

[zyanite7]

people back then with the same exact mindset: "what could they possibly do with just my fingerprints?"

im just afraid of the unknown. now its useless but how about after another 5/10 years?

[jajko]

Also, genes pass down to your kids, compared to fingerprints which are just cca unique for each of us. What a terrible thing to (unknowingly) do to them. Gattaca and all.

When I first heard about them and similar services, the potential for abuse was the first thing that came to my mind. I am not paranoid in any way and those were easy times compared to now. Still, I prefer not knowing my ancestry than this.

And ancestry for Europeans is not such a hot topic, you just need to look at a bit of history of continent and its civilizations and get the idea.

[notyourwork]

Sorry, what exactly could (a is) someone doing with my fingerprints?

[sebastiennight]

Without spoilers, there's an entire chapter of the Three-Body Problem revolving around what can happen if you're a sufficiently high-value target whose genome has leaked.

The outcome for this person is not great :-)

[gbin]

Sell the entire database to a police state. Identify embarrassing mutations and blackmail people to prevent them from being released publicly. Corner high value individuals / billionaires, find an out of wedlock child, blackmail. ...