
23andMe Genetic Testing Kit Free with a Year Long Membership of $108 - rancar2
http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2011/04/23andme-sale-on-monday.html
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dotBen
My advice to anyone thinking of doing genetic testing (be it 23andMe or
another route) is to consider seriously doing it at as a "John Doe" (ie not
using your real name and details).

Knowing you have a high susceptibility to a significant disease could have all
sorts of implications for insurance - medical, life and even car.

In general insurance companies require you to disclose any and all information
that you have that would be pertinent to them assessing risk. Clearly for
medical and life insurance you knowing there is a high chance you will get
Parkinsons (for example) is information your insurer would like to know - and
presumably will have a negative impact on your coverage costs/availability.

Here in the US there are currently laws - such as Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) - to prevent insurance companies demanding this
information.

However laws can be repealed. The insurance industry is the 'leader' in
government lobbying. 23andMe is still subject to US federal subpoenas laws.
23andMe could be aquired by an insurance firm.

Also consider laws differ in other countries, where insurance companies might
be able to legally demand results. In Canada insurance companies can not only
request it, they can demand you get this kind of testing before you can obtain
coverage.

Consider further that databases can be hacked/stolen (it seems to be happening
to every email marketing company right now).

Think carefully whether you want your personal legal name and contact details
all over the results of a test like this.

~~~
treyp
if you expect to be truly anonymous with 23andme, you're going to need to
anonymize the address the kit is sent to, the payment information, and the
connections to other people you have as well.

related: [http://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-use-23andme-
anonymous...](http://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-use-23andme-anonymously-
under-a-pseudonym-or-otherwise-without-personally-identifying-information)

~~~
dotBen
The following is my boiler plate for anything that requires anonymous
subscription - 23andme, domain registration, hosting, etc:

1) Mailbox in SF's China Town _(a number don't ask for ID even though they're
supposed to legally request it)_. Many also don't speak much English so if
anyone comes to investigate good luck to them.

2) Visa/Amex gift card purchased at Walgreens/Safeway in cash - ideally in a
different city you happen to be visiting with no connection in. Las Vegas and
New York are great choices.

3) Email address created and accessed via TOR within the incognito mode of the
browser. Buy the 23andMe subscription/domain/hosting in the same way but
making sure you are using a different TOR session.

~~~
JoachimSchipper
While I approve of you guarding your privacy, you may want to be careful about
doing this with domain names - many registrars require that the WHOIS
information is up to date, and can theoretically take them back if it isn't.
I'd imagine the same holds for domainsbyproxy and the like.

~~~
jrockway
So what? All you need is the initial email to work, nobody is going to notice
fake whois that quickly. No person is going to show up at the address you list
to verify that it's actually _your_ address.

I've used fake whois records for a while and have never had any problems. I
did make my main domain "real" a few years ago to avoid any problems, however.

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pstack
I know that it's entirely irrational and counter-productive, but I can not
bring myself to do this and find out things I'd rather not spend the rest of
my (hopefully not too short) life obsessing over. I'm already busy enough
focusing on the obvious things, like being overweight. If I discovered that
I'm certain to end up with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's or something, I might
have a pretty difficult time coping.

It makes no sense. It's entirely irrational. I love information. Knowledge.
Informed decision making. And yet . . .

~~~
proexploit
I'm not aware of very much in the genetic material 23andme processes that is
indicative of a 100% chance of having some future disease. Here's a screenshot
of my 23andme dashboard with some of the information removed:
<http://i.imgur.com/9ViAf.jpg> . As you can see, everything here is based on
how much more likely you may be to develop a disease than the average person.
Within the page details the specific studies that have given them the
information being used in the calculation are cited with links and additional
technical information. You can also see that the highest risk factor they've
calculated for me is 11.3% or 1.61x the average (in this case, it's Age-
related Macular Degeneration).

Obviously, it's possible that a person could be given a more significant
percentage of a serious condition which raises additional questions. If you
are both A) objective enough to firmly grasp that a chance is simply a chance,
not a sure outcome and B) not someone who worries a great deal about possible
future situations, you might benefit from using 23andme. Otherwise, it may be
wise not to purchase the program.

For me, I've had an interesting effect of using some of the increased negative
risks to help me stop bad habits while at the same time, not using any of the
decreased risks as a license to go ahead and live more recklessly in those
areas. Hopefully this give you some additional perspective on whether
something like this would be right for you.

~~~
pella
be careful, very easy to decode your health information from this screenshot.

( the average risk - is mostly unique value )

( for example: Restless Legs Syndrome [ avg risk: 2.0% ])

:-)

~~~
proexploit
Yes, I realized this when making the image. It's certainly something people
should consider before posting their results online even in an edited format.
For me, blocking the names out was a barrier to discovery for most people (not
worth the effort). It's not something I specifically want to share with the
world, but there's nothing in that list I would be upset to hear people know
either. Certainly a good comment for people to think about.

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corin_
For anyone who missed the details on when this is available (as I did on the
first read) and who read it thinking of taking advantage of this offer: the
deal is only available from midnight to midnight (24 hours) Monday, using PST
as the timezone. So starting in just under 4 hours.

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fijter
$63 to ship a single kit to The Netherlands? What is this, eBay?

~~~
ljf
Agreed - but it's medical mail both ways with import duty paid on way in... I
bit the bullet and paid - not bad, about £100 all in for the year sub and
test. Hopefully the data will be of interest.

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rdl
One of the more interesting parts of 23andme, at least for me, was finding
second and third cousins (likely) that I didn't know. Most of the actual
medical tests are fairly non-predictive (1.5x increase in one study for
something which is already rare?), but the ancestry part is something where
having a lot of participants in a selectively-open database can be
interesting.

I do really hope Halcyon (or another company) gets full sequencing costs down
as low as they say they can. Then, sequencing becomes just a routine checkbox
on blood tests.

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snarf
Note that the extent of their genetic analysis varies by ethnicity, with those
of East Asian and African descent getting less than half as much analysis:
<https://www.23andme.com/health/ethnicity/>

~~~
khomenko
That's certainly true right now, but the information in the health reports
gets updated all the time based on new studies, so it will continue to get
better.

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Draft_Punk
"Free when you pay"

~~~
rancar2
I agree. It was a word choice between free and sale. I assumed free was a more
effective title than sale for HN.

Note that when buying add a one-year subscription which will bring the total
price to $108.

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Roritharr
Just told someone to order, i think the service is worth every penny, i hope
doctors find this research valid enough to base some of their work on it(i'm
public insured in germany).

My only fear at this point is them turning people over to evil scientists
after finding out about their superpowers.

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latch
Drats...largely limited to NA and Europe.

