Citizens Dedicated To Preserving Our Constitutional Republic
Source; https://www.teaparty247.org/dna-ancestry-tests-are-all-the-rage-but...
(Tea Party 247) – Genetic testing is a booming industry, estimated to be worth $10 billion by the year 2022. Everyone wants to know the history of their ancestors, where they came from, or what health conditions they might be prone to. There is a myriad of information one can gather through DNA testing.
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Finding out about your ancestry can be interesting and exciting! It’s so easy to do nowadays with all the available technology. From the comfort of your home you can order a DNA test from any number of websites like Ancestry.com, My Heritage, FamilyTreeDNA, and 23andMe to name a few. Sites like Ancestry even give you the ability to build large, detailed family trees and sites like 23andMe allow you to screen your genetics for general health issues. It truly is amazing how much information we can get just from a swab of spit.
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How many people actually stop and consider who else is able to access your DNA once you send it off and what information can they get from it? Crimes are being solved, like the Golden State Killer, with the use of DNA samples sent it to the aforementioned companies, though that is probably not the reason most people send in their DNA. It’s bizarre to think that once you send off your DNA sample it can be used for many other things, by numerous other entities. How many millions of people have already happily handed over their DNA?
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In addition to being used by police departments and other law enforcement agencies to piece together unsolved crimes, Humans Are Free reports on some of the other ways your DNA is being used:
23andMe recently announced a partnership with the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, allowing them access to home DNA results for their new drug research. Ancestry are fairly open about the fact that they can and will use your DNA for their own tests and research, while another company, Invitae, state that your data can be shared with public databases, laboratories and universities.
Life insurance, long-term care insurance and disability insurance companies in the US are also legally permitted to access genetic testing data if they wish, which means they can charge people higher rates for their coverage based on the results.
While some services are keen to say that will anonymise data before selling it on, critics have been quick to call out these suggestions because of the impossibility of fully anonymising such unique and personal data. As well as the risk involved in sharing your DNA, it’s also wise to consider the implications should that DNA data be connected to your online accounts and activities.
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Possibly the most disturbing of these uses is the pharmaceutical companies. You could unknowingly be part of the development of drugs that could potentially injure people. After all, all drugs have “side effects” and some people are more prone to these “side effects” than others. I certainly don’t want to be involved in the production of any Big Pharma products. Big Pharma is taking our DNA through partnerships with genetic testing companies and using them for research and development, yet there is a way to test babies for genetic dispositions to vaccine injury and that is not being widely discussed or implemented. Funny how Big Pharma is only interested in genetics where they can increase their profits exponentially versus protecting people.
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All of the ways in which third party companies can obtain and use our DNA is just disturbing. It’s also disturbing to think that our genetic information could be hacked. Since it’s all being stored in electronic databases it can hacked and stolen, just like credit card numbers or bank account information. According to Humans Are Free, “In 2018, MyHeritage suffered a major data breach. 92 million users had their email addresses and passwords stolen, giving cause for concern about what hackers could access when furnished with such information in relation to a genetic DNA account.”
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The effects of stolen DNA data are still not fully understood. Foreign governments could have the potential to hack into genetic information databases and who knows what that could result in. I wouldn’t trust a country like China with the DNA information of millions of Americans.
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There are so many potential uses for our DNA information, especially if it can be stolen by nefarious entities. Unfortunately, most people don’t consider these consequences when determining to learn more about their family history or genetic makeup and this likely won’t change.
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