Google and Microsoft Want Your DNA

Wired News
Posted: 2007-09-27 20:11:15

According to consumer watchdog Privacy International, Google conducts "comprehensive surveillance" and embodies an "entrenched hostility to privacy." Microsoft, though a little less invasive, is still Microsoft. What do they have in common? Both want you to trust them with your DNA.

Jesse Reynolds of the Center for Genetics and Society reports on AlterNet about the companies' investments in 23andMe, a startup in the fledgling online genomic information industry. In the future, such companies will offer to sequence your genome, interpret the information for you, and put you in touch with products and services that fit your genetic profile. There's even a social networks angle -- MySpace meets Gattaca.

It doesn't sound so bad at first. But as Reynolds writes,

important private information will move outside of your control. If divulged, your genome and medical history can impact critical decisions by prospective employers, insurers and even spouses. Are you ready to entrust this deeply personal information to a company that gets an "F" in privacy?

Moreover, your genetic information will be mined by private researchers -- and when they hit gold, you won't get a cut. Guess you should've scrolled to the bottom of that user agreement popup window before you clicked "I Accept." And then there's the question of interpretation. That's best left to genetic counselors who can navigate the scientific ambiguities and ethical conundrums posed by our genes.

"In its race to transform the falling price of genetic sequencing into a dubious consumer product," writes Reynolds, 23andMe "fails to realize that your medical history and personal genome are fundamentally different than your reading habits, and 'patients' are not synonymous with 'consumers.'"

Google Wants to Track Your Medical History -- And Your Genome [AlterNet]