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Your Personal Data Is On Your Phone -- In the Form of Bacteria

Posted by Unknown on from the never-borrowing-a-phone-again dept.

jfruh (300774) writes "Yes, we all know that we have a lot of personally identifying information on our phones that maybe we shouldn't. But even if our data is locked down and encrypted, we're all leaving biological footprints on our phones, which are basically extensions of our personal bacterial ecosystem. A study has concluded that phones could be a less invasive source of information in studying individual microbiomes than current techniques."

13 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Just leave my microbiome alone by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't want to be tracked: I don't want my personal data stored and dissected in Google's servers, I don't want my fingerprints filed in some government agency's database, I don't want my DNA sequenced and recorded anywhere, and I don't want my microbiome analyzed.

    I don't want to, but I have no choice apparently. Anonymity is going the way of the dodos. Fuck I hate this world...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Just leave my microbiome alone by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't want to, but I have no choice apparently

      Sure you do; you just (apparently) want to use sites with AdSense too much to stop using them.

      Also, noone is sequencing your DNA for marketing purposes, I promise you.

      Anonymity is going the way of the dodos.

      Only if you care so little as to not take steps to achieve anonymity, sure.

    2. Re:Just leave my microbiome alone by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

      Part of the problem is people changing (upgrading?) their phones every six months . That really does not make sense. I can make a PC last for 5 years ( with linux) . The cell phone industry is a profit oriented pseudo innovative group of capitalists who dont care . The phrase "too many standards to choose from" is most reflected in the cell phone industry.

  2. Clean your data! by nowsharing · · Score: 1

    This is exactly why the security-conscious always wipe their phones clean

    1. Re:Clean your data! by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

      There's a shitload of data on my rear end.

    2. Re:Clean your data! by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      I hope your phone doesn't collect anything from THERE! Remind me never to borrow your phone!

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    3. Re:Clean your data! by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

      Still a shitty idea, no matter how you slice it.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:Clean your data! by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

      Never heard of 'butt dialing'?

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  3. Re:I don't have a phone by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that still legal?

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  4. Re:I don't have a phone by NotInHere · · Score: 2

    I suppose phones are forbidden in jails, so... As long as you are in jail...

  5. Re:I don't have a phone by WormholeFiend · · Score: 1

    But those phones that do make it to a person in jail is shockful of bacteria, and not all of it from the final user.

  6. Electronic Odour by sdack · · Score: 1

    So basically what researchers are saying is that the trail a person leaves on the Internet, and the phone networks, is not much different from our body odour, which also stems more or less from bacteria. This is a rather fascinating if not a bizarre analogy. If so then we can only hope our trails drive of competitors and attracts the opposite sex. Somebody please pass me the soap.

    I do wonder what Napoleon would have made of it. Would he have told his women before returning from battles not only not to wash, but also not to clear their browsing history?!? ...

  7. Gattaca demonstrated this by d0ran$ · · Score: 1

    The movie Gattaca had a lot of the plot based on DNA.

    From the Wikipedia article: ...
    The film's title is based on the first letters of guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA. ...

    Was Gattaca a preview of a real future where our DNA controls where we live/work etc...