Summary
Three years ago, I put my faith in a 23andMe DNA test and got burned.
While most of my results initially checked out — about 50 percent South Asian and what looked like a 50 percent hodgepodge of European — there was one glaring surprise. Where roughly 25 percent Italian was supposed to be, Middle Eastern stood in its place. The results shocked me.
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And companies are popping up every day, promising to use your DNA for everything from figuring out what wine or marijuana varietals your genetics predispose you to, to what skin care regimen is best for you, according to Jennifer King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.
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“23andMe could decide that they want to use genetic data for ad targeting. They could potentially give a list of customers to Johnson & Johnson,” King told Recode. “It would be a change, but they could do it.”
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“They could decide, ‘Hey we’re gonna follow the Google or Facebook model and allow advertisers to target customers through our platform,’” King said.
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“When you make the decision to give away your DNA data, that choice affects you and everybody related to you,” King said. “It’s not necessarily where it goes right now, but where it goes in the future.”
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For now, consumers can, of course, choose not to take consumer DNA tests. Or, King suggests, they can take the tests under a fake name, review them, then ask the testing company to delete their account.
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