DNA test

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
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Retired in Minneapolis
My family has an oral history going back to 1876 on Dad's Swedish side and about 1910 on Mom's Polish side. I've been thinking of getting a DNA test done by Ancestry or similar

Has anyone else done this?

The concern about personal info being shared is the biggest concern
 
Tom Dunlap said:
My family has an oral history going back to 1876 on Dad's Swedish side and about 1910 on Mom's Polish side. I've been thinking of getting a DNA test done by Ancestry or similar

Has anyone else done this?

The concern about personal info being shared is the biggest concern
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Mine as well. There is what 23andme, ancestry, and the front company does, then there is what the actual dna facility does. Sometimes they are different things.
 
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Last I heard, Ancestry.com cost to do the test is more than the price they charge you. How, you ask? They are making more money on the other end. You are not the client, but rather the product.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
Can you ask her if there are things I should know?

Who did the test?
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Gotta be more specific than that.. I think she took it a few years ago (2 maybe). Since then they have updated her info as more genetics enter the pool. Where there is more links the more family and genetic ancestry they can link you to. Some genetics are not very specific, basically it kinda sucks for First Nations folks. It wont pinpoint the tribe or region, just says youre 10% native, that can be Canada - the southern tip of Chile.

She contacted 23andMe specifically because they answered her questions regarding he DNA being used against her for any medical reasons. As far as personal info being shares, this is optional to what degree. He mother did so as well and discovered a biological sister! So this can be a mixed bag, you might find out you were adopted! Who knows?!
 
Never give your DNA to any of these companies.
They used to pay people to give theirs up or would provide DNA checks for free.
All of them make bank on selling your DNA.
They aggregate the data with all the other crap they collect on you.

If you want your health, life, and auto insurance costs to skyrocket in the near future then go ahead and hand over your most personal and precious piece of information that will not only effect you but your children as well.
 
I don't have much interest in this, even considering how relatively cheap they are; and I don't buy Ancestry.coms commercials on how people were impressed by what the mapping of their ancestors told them. And I have desirable family backgrounds and "pedigrees" I don't buy the propaganda.
 
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Beyond ancestry 23andme can be a very usefull tool concerning your health. Knowing your genetic snip and mutations can be a great roadmap to what you should be eating and drinking, and diseases and health issues that you are genetically predisposed too. It has been an immensely valuable tool in my long fight with Lyme disease..
 
At some point, I suspect that life insurance companies will require DNA testing before selling a policy. Health insurance will be more difficult because of how regulated it is...but it makes sense - even if not to deny coverage, but to adjust rates accordingly.
 
DNA is very private information in the sense that it should be. I would not give mine to anyone unless they were doing health screening on me and could not legally release it as part of my medical record. In practice, DNA sequences are not entirely private because they can be inferred from your relatives, both near and less near. Conversely, if yours goes out in the wild, the same parts of your family members' genomes will then be less private, so it's not just about you. Your DNA can also be harvested from things you leave behind, of course, and this may be a violation of privacy, or not - I'm not a lawyer. Hopefully you gather enough information to make a good decision.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
Hmmm...gives me pause

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/...ml?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
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I heard about that and it seems to violate 4th Amendment legal procedures. And on the "good guys" vs. "bad guys" dichotomy, if you did a really rigorous analysis on "good" vs. "bad" you would have to include many actions or failures to act that carry a lot more weight than the obvious "nasty" transgressions, involving big money, influence peddling, using intimidation tactics, and making unreasonable demands on mainstream people. Some of the worst people know the law and don't get caught while violating numerous matters of ethics.

This case reminds me somewhat of the warrantless wiretaps the telecom companies engaged in after 911.
 
JeffGu said:
My phone has more taps on it than a Fred Astaire movie. If you need to do some plumbing and reload some shotgun shells, don't order your supplies by phone, on the same day.
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I suspected as much with some of my business etc. following 9/11. I was not filing taxes, doing a little correspondence with Constitutionalist groups, etc.. They can put people on their "watch" lists and "person of interest" sheets. When going up to Canada on a Sunday afternoon with a church group over 10 years ago the CAN border people flagged me and then said I was likely the victim of identity theft of someone who had used my driver's license who had tatoos and was a lot shorter, they said I needed to get it addressed when I went back to the US.

A righteous government would release all the records on what they have been doing unless there is an active criminal investigation. But that would open them up to lawsuits! I asked a Congressman's office how to request and get my FBI report, he said those were more or less being ignored.
 
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