Remember That DNA You Gave 23andMe?

kinther@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 376 points –
Remember That DNA You Gave 23andMe?
theatlantic.com
109

You are viewing a single comment

This whole "meh I don't care about privacy, take my data" attitude among younger generations is going to cause us SO MANY PROBLEMS in 20 years.

And what are these problems you foresee?

Being denied medical insurance because you have a genetic predisposition for certain diseases.

New government comes into power, decides homosexuality is illegal. Digs into your post history, finds your comments supporting homosexuality, you go to prison.

Someone takes a bunch of photos of you, uses AI to create a lifelike video of you doing a lewd sex act, and then blackmails you with it.

Identity theft cases go through the roof.

Employers refuse to hire you because of an argument you had on facebook when you were 14.

You're really REALLY craving ice cream. Predictive algorithms knew you would be craving ice cream right now. So your personal price for ice cream at every store is now 3x what it usually is.

You call in sick to work, but actually go to visit a sick friend. Your car reports your location to your boss, and you're fired.

It really shows how far we have fallen when these examples (to which, top notch, grade A examples, mind you) sound terrifyingly real. Some even sound like they have happened in some capacity. You could write horror stories for the modern age.

Regarding the second argument: unless something really bad happens in the country, wouldnt it be impossible to put someone in prison for breaking a law that didnt exist you did the action?

I know this is prohibited in the romanian constitution and i know that the entire document was inspired by the american constitution so i just assumed that it was a common thing to have in a constitution. I have seen a lot of people(including americans) use being charged for a crime that didnt exist when you committed it as a pro-privacy argument and im not sure if other countries just forgot to put one of the most important thing in their constitution

Illegal? Probably. Impossible? No.

Impossible unless something really bad happens in the country

If something really bad happens in the country and they would lookin your history of comments if you supported something, couldnt they also ban privacy and charge you for that?

Please correct me if im wrong

Something really bad can happen. It has happened before in many countries, and will continue to happen as long as we have humans.

Yes, privacy can be made more difficult. Certain privacy friendly services (example VPN, there are others) could be banned.

But, the less information they have on you, the better off you'll be.

That relies on the assumption that a dictatorship would follow the rules.

unless something really bad happens in the country, wouldnt it be impossible to put someone in prison for breaking a law that didnt exist you did the action?

yeesh, this'll age like rotten eggs.

Honestly most of these sound like America problems, insurance, employers digging through history, cars reporting to workplaces, etc.

Companies already have profile information on me, or 95% accurate generalisations for my demographic. And no way would such price gouging tactics be allowed in my country.

The most plausible ones, such as a government targeting me - well the only other option is to live my life underground and that defeats the whole purpose of pride. So yeah I'll gladly risk being myself publicly in spite of the risks.

Look at the end of the day, things could change 180 a new oppressive and more American like government could come in and make my life shitty. But the thing is, if they've already managed to come in, they're going to make my life shitty regardless of what information I have out there.

You sweet naive fool. "That would never happen, it's ILLEGAL!" Grow up. They are already doing it.

That’s nice American, why don’t you go focus on a real issue like gun control instead of fearing an imaginary future where fascists are in power but can only find public information about a person to persecute them with?

Maybe you could focus on the lack of universal healthcare, rather than private insurance raising your prices.

Stop focusing on imaginary future scenarios and focus on the actual real problems you have already. Because they don’t exist elsewhere and it’s got nothing to do with DNA information.

Hahaha did I strike a nerve? Probably guilt. You know you should care more about privacy but you can't give up the convenience.

No, I’m just tired of seeing your ill thought out comments on this site.

All it would take is one shitty government to mandate you have to have dna on file and your entire safety is gone.

Focus on having a better government, that will actually protect your citizens, not this fear mongering.

It's ok, I'm sure just screaming "America bad" will totally mask those guilty feelings.

I’m sure pretending you don’t already have it worse will make you feel smug about not knowing about your dna.

Your problems are purely political, they don’t exist elsewhere. Get used to that.

"America bad!!!"

"Sir I'm trying to tell you that you have lymphoma"

"AMERICA BAD!!!"

More like

“OMG you will lose your insurance!!!”

“Im not American that doesn’t apply to me”

“Omg u mad @ murica bro?”

Your issues are your own, stop projecting them onto others.

Considering the rise of fascism everywhere? What could possibility go wrong?

Mass data harvesting, inevitable data breach - oh look, you have genetic markers for some degenerative condition, and for some reason you're now suddenly getting booted off your insurance and refused coverage.