> Is 23 And Me supplying you with an analysis of your genome horrendous?
No, but forever storing it, cross-matching it with others, and eventually leaking this data is horrendous.
If 23 And Me was just a genome analysis for preventive healthcare company you wouldn't be citing it because that's not "exciting" enough but it'd be as useful as it can be without the harmful side of collecting this biometric data at such scale.
But won't a preventive healthcare company be subject to these same risks of cross-matching and leaking?
Also, not that 23 And Me were secretive about all that, they advertised the cross-matching before you order the kit, and data leak risks is something one should automatically consider when sharing any private data with anyone at all.'
If there is any harm done, it's not in telling people how much Neanderthal DNA they have, and not even in cross-matching them when they voluntarily sign up for that.
> But won't a preventive healthcare company be subject to these same risks of cross-matching and leaking?
For cross-matching no, why would they be cataloguing genealogy trees if they didn't provide that service? Or if they did for any necessary further analysis/research (like tracing some evolution of genetic defect) it could be anonymised and discarded after use.
For leaking data, I agree there would be a risk but not providing services that require the genetic data to be available at all times for 23 And Me would lessen the issue. Either simply discard the data when not necessary anymore for the healthcare assessment; or if they wanted to keep it for the convenience of the customer then it could be encrypted with some key only the customer has access to, and which if needed the customer could provide for their service request.
Voluntarily signing up for it shouldn't remove all ethical issues from 23 And Me, a common person as a customer is not an all-knowing being who is informed enough about all the potential risks of giving such data to a company. It's not reasonable to expect that every customer is well informed about that.
No, but forever storing it, cross-matching it with others, and eventually leaking this data is horrendous.
If 23 And Me was just a genome analysis for preventive healthcare company you wouldn't be citing it because that's not "exciting" enough but it'd be as useful as it can be without the harmful side of collecting this biometric data at such scale.