Your genetic data can be exploited without you ever knowing about it

Your genome literally identifies you, but researchers and genetic firms keep saying that DNA data is anonymous. It’s a privacy scandal waiting to happen



Technology



27 February 2019

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EVERY person in the world is issued with a unique code before they are even born. Governments, insurance firms and indeed pretty much anyone can use this code to catalogue us throughout our entire lives. This isn’t a sci-fi dystopia – it is just genetics.

While your genome doesn’t explicitly record your name, address or other identifying information, the rise of consumer genetics services means these details are increasingly being linked to your DNA. Once that happens, the gene genie is out of the bottle.

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source: newscientist.com