Slashdot Mirror
IBM Vows Not to Genetically Discriminate
An anonymous reader writes "Today the New York Times is reporting that IBM announced the addition of genetic makeup (Genetic Registration Required) to its non-discrimination policy. It appears that IBM is the first company worldwide to do this. With congress considering genetic privacy legislation, and with projects like the National Geographic Genographic Project, are we nearing the time when we all need to worry about our genetic privacy?"
For those who actually bother to know the basics of business law (should really be a college gen ed) would know their states discrimination laws.
In NJ for example, this practice has been illegal for several years already. I believe a few other states have also outlawed this practice.
http://news.com.com/IBM+Workers+genetic+data+off+l imits/2100-11395_3-5892244.html?tag=nefd.top
I think the text was copied verbatim, but I'm not sure.
I think HIPAA already prohibits considering genetic information a pre-existing condition unless it is a factor in an existing condition that has manifest itself. This means that if you're genetically predisposed to diabetes but don't have diabetes at this point, health insurance companies can't exclude diabetes from a new policy for you as if you already had it.
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
It's not the material itself, but extrapolations based on analysis of the material.
An analysis of your genetic material indicates that you have a higher than normal chance of becoming mentally unstable. We therefore will not hire you.
Your genetic material shows a predisposition to a certain inherited disease that is expensive to treat. We don't want our health coverage plan to have to deal with a claim for this sort of disease, so we will not hire you.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
This came up in the NBA recently....
And more articles from Google...
"I told you a million times not to exaggerate!"
Just to nitpick (this is slashdot afterall), Wolverine wasn't born with the claws -- they were implanted long after birth as part of the Weapon X project.
Just to nitpick (this is slashdot afterall), Wolverine wasn't born with the
claws -- they were implanted long after birth as part of the Weapon X project.
Well, to nitpick further, he was born with the claws, they were just made out
of bone, and were coated with adamantium as part of the Weapon X project.
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
Ummm.. In world war 2 IBM designed and sold technology to the nazis:
http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/
Only after Jews were identified -- a massive and complex task that Hitler wanted done immediately -- could they be targeted for efficient asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, enslaved labor, and, ultimately, annihilation. It was a cross-tabulation and organizational challenge so monumental, it called for a computer. Of course, in the 1930s no computer existed.
But IBM's Hollerith punch card technology did exist. Aided by the company's custom-designed and constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate his persecution of the Jews. Historians have always been amazed at the speed and accuracy with which the Nazis were able to identify and locate European Jewry. Until now, the pieces of this puzzle have never been fully assembled. The fact is, IBM technology was used to organize nearly everything in Germany and then Nazi Europe, from the identification of the Jews in censuses, registrations, and ancestral tracing programs to the running of railroads and organizing of concentration camp slave labor.
Do you even know what a split infinitive is? Churchill said that about dangling preopsitions... Not to mention that they IBM isn't splitting any infinitives: "to not foo" is splitting the infinitive--"not to foo" is the right way to say it. Take the classic "To boldly go...".
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
IBM hired it's first black employee in 1899, along with its first women employees. In 1944, IBM was the first corporation to support the United Negro College Fund. IBM began hiring women to work as professional systems service staff in 1935. Thomas J. Watson Sr. wrote: "Men and women will do the same kind of work for equal pay. They will have the same treatment, the same responsibilities and the same opportunities for advancement."
Pretty damn progressive for the stereotypical big, uncaring megacorp.