
Chances DNA can be used to find your family? Sixty percent and rising - okket
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/chances-dna-can-be-used-to-find-your-family-60-percent-and-rising/
======
FactolSarin
My wife and I used IVF to get pregnant. The issue was on her side, so we used
donor eggs. It was completely anonymous, of course, but lately I've been
wondering what's going to happen if (let's be honest, when) my children decide
to use a service like 23AndMe.

Will they want to get in touch with the donor or her family? What affect will
that have on my wife, who probably would feel diminished as the mother if that
happened? I don't know, and honestly it's not something we considered five
years ago when we had our kids. Those services existed at the time, but they
hadn't taken off like they have in the last few years.

I think it's something anyone considering sperm/egg donation (either as a
recipient or a donor) has to consider. If one side wants to connect, it's
probably going to happen.

~~~
morgtheborg
This is literally how I found out that I had a half-brother.

23andMe. I looked up family members, for fun. WHAM, half brother. I called my
dad who, after some prodding, confirmed it was his child. I reached out. The
man knew he was adopted.

Now we have a new brother at family events. Likely his Mom and him are going
to spend Christmas with us.

~~~
onetimemanytime
Great ending. But not all are like this: think divorce or even murder after
finding out that husband has kids all over the place :). And that's just one
angle

------
emptybits
> This is a rare case where a potential forensic tool is probably biased
> toward identifying wealthy white individuals.

------
inetknght
Disclaimer: I work for a genetics genealogy company. My comments are my own.

> _If, for whatever reason, you 'd like to maintain your privacy, the
> researchers have a couple of suggestions you could support. One is simply to
> have the government redefine private information to reflect this new
> reality, so that the studies it funds no longer link any personal
> information with DNA sequences._

Improving government research anonymization standards is a good thing. But it
will not go _nearly_ far enough to solve privacy complaints from relatives of
people who've had their DNA commercially tested for genealogy.

> _They also suggest that companies that offer direct-to-consumer genetics
> standardize on a signed, encrypted file format for information on
> variations. That would prevent people from taking DNA information from other
> sources, like DNA sequence repositories, and using it to track down your
> family members._

I strongly believe more and better privacy regulation is necessary. I'm really
curious to learn more about what sort of encrypted file format this person
wants to standardize on and exactly _how_ it's supposed to prevent people from
taking DNA information from other sources.

~~~
criddell
> I strongly believe more and better privacy regulation is necessary.

What do you think the consequences will be if that doesn't happen?

~~~
inetknght
Consider that there are a significant number of people who don't know they
have more relatives than the ones they know and love. If the information is
public, it becomes an avenue for blackmailing.

Scams about relatives already happen _without_ DNA [1].

Depending on what state in which you live your insurance coverage or cost
might change too. [2]

There's also significant risk that your DNA will be sequenced in one
jurisdiction but, because of The Cloud, it gets analyzed and stored in another
jurisdiction. For example, the EU and US have very different privacy laws.

Some DNA analysis software employ stochastic algorithms. That means that the
answer they provide can be different if run more than once, especially if run
with different parameters (such as sample pool). [3] [4] Some customers know
this and will ask for their data to be reanalyzed.

Some companies make the DNA available to be downloaded by the customer. That
file can then be used for your own analysis or research. It could also be
uploaded to other companies for different analyses or conclusions.

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that your grandmother, who uploaded
her DNA to a foreign company for a new or different analysis, has given a
foreign adversary private information about _you_ and your potential medical
hazards or secret relationships.

[1]
[https://www.khou.com/gallery/news/investigations/consumer/vi...](https://www.khou.com/gallery/news/investigations/consumer/virtual-
kidnapping-a-scary-extortion-scam/285-157917908)

[2] [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/4--risks-consumer-face-
with-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/4--risks-consumer-face-with-dna-
testing-and-buying-life-insurance.html)

[3]
[http://mathgen.stats.ox.ac.uk/impute/impute_v2.html](http://mathgen.stats.ox.ac.uk/impute/impute_v2.html)

[4]
[http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/software/admixture/](http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/software/admixture/)

------
TomK32
I wish they'd use it for something good like the estimated 300000 stolen
children during Francoism.

~~~
lallysingh
Or the children currently being separated from their parents at the US border.

~~~
auton1
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/21/...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/21/congresswoman-
jackie-speier-asks-23andme-to-reunite-families-separated-at-border/amp/)

------
UI_at_80x24
Tools like this are the only way most descendants of slavery can trace their
heritage AND find relatives.

For a lot of people 'family history' stops at 3 generations ago. Not only are
they denied heritage, they are denied a home, a land, and a people. A sense of
connection to the past is denied them.

DNA services are the only way to make these connections. And they are not
trust worthy.

~~~
in_cahoots
Most gene testing services aren’t nearly as accurate for people of non-
European descent. I saw this when getting some prenatal screening - there’s a
whole suite of tests for various European sub populations, and almost nothing
for people of African descent.

------
dv_dt
So what might the broad social effects be if every adopted child has
increasingly better odds of tracing their parentage?

~~~
derefr
I would assume that voluntary sperm donation would sharply fall.

~~~
nervousvarun
Ostensibly yes...but with supply and demand being what it is, the economical
value of viable sperm is going to drastically start increasing.

[https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero](https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-
count-zero)

------
blutfink
I wonder if the family of Benjaman Kyle [0] will eventually be found as more
and more people are added to the databases.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjaman_Kyle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjaman_Kyle)

~~~
ars
They were found in 2015. It's in the article you linked to.

------
anon49124
GATTACA here we come. People discovering and discriminating against genetic
traits.

