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Apple's Plans For Your DNA
An anonymous reader writes: MIT's Technology Review breaks news that Apple is working with scientists to create apps that collect and evaluate users' DNA. "The apps are based on ResearchKit, a software platform Apple introduced in March that helps hospitals or scientists run medical studies on iPhones by collecting data from the devices' sensors or through surveys." A source says Apple's plan is to enable users to easily share their DNA information with medical workers and researchers performing studies. "To join one of the studies, a person would agree to have a gene test carried out—for instance, by returning a "spit kit" to a laboratory approved by Apple. The first such labs are said to be the advanced gene-sequencing centers operated by UCSF and Mount Sinai."
"By using this application you agree to grant all rights to the usage of your DNA to Apple, inc, including, but not limited to, creating an army of clones in your image."
...will be based on a database containing only rich hipsters?
I give out my DNA all the time. As long as I don't have to pay child support, I am not concerned.
The guy with a mac.com email address nay-saying the cautious. Funny.
I can't wait for this info to wind up, either due to hackers, or other means in a public database:
1: Insurance companies will love it -- they now have more reasons to hike premiums or drop people.
2: It will be used by some companies as yet another quiet filter, ensuring some people's resumes always hit the round file.
3: It will enable Gattaca-like discrimination.
4: It will be used by some governments for mass arrests and genocide, similar to countries in the Middle East currently using DNA to test potential government officials for Jewish ancestry, and deny them that job if they test positive.
5: It will be used to deny services. Someone's family has a tendency for depression? No gun, knife, or camping equipment for them.
6: It will be used for more discrimination, especially with the advances in facial recognition. People can be booted to the back of the bus even if they don't look African American.
7: It can be used as a means of extending someone's criminal sentence (their genes show they have a tendency to being a felon, so lock them up.) Or just as a probable cause for searches.
When people's DNA winds up in a searchable database... I can't wait to be told that I'm not wanted at a local eatery because I had a native American ancestor 300 years ago.
Sure, until insurance companies and governments start demanding access to it.
You don't need to be much of a conspiracy nut to realize the potential for privacy invasion and abuse of this data is absolutely staggering.
There simply are way too few legal controls on how this stuff is used to safely make it as commonplace as that.
Essentially, corporations and the government will have massive databases of the DNA of pretty much everybody ... and it will be used to deny you service, in criminal proceedings because they can demand it, and who knows what else.
DNA samples on an iPhone is a hell of a way to get the fully distopian future and Big Brother .. because you can bet your ass that secret warrants will be used to force companies to hand this stuff over and then have it collated into one big giant database.
I don't care if it's Apple, Microsoft, Google, or anybody else ... this is a creepy idea which will have enormous implications to society.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
because what could possibly go wrong, the info could never ever be mis-used or stolen.....
They aren't taking the DNA sample FROM the iPhone. You are mailing a sample of DNA to some lab which will link your SNP profile with your iTunes ID number.
Now, think of this for a minute. The ability to associate SNPs with buying proclivities. An "Apple gene", if you will.
Now folks, this is a marketing executives wet dream complete with hookers and blow.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Oh, man, that would make for an awesome dating app! Swipe right, and it renders your potential children.
This was my thoughts as well...
So you have a higher probability of getting this disease due to genes that we don't really understand yet... well the policy that covers that is more expensive or we refuse to cover you.
How bout we sell you a policy that just covers what you are predisposed for to save some money? Sorry, broken legs are not included in your policy...
I bet they will patent all our genomes and then we'll be screwed: of course you can have children without paying us, as long as they are not rectangular with rounded corners and do not contain these 20 amino-acids in our list...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Perhaps they're getting their foot in the door regarding DNA identification, if (when?) they managed to get their mitts on a tiny device that can sequence DNA from breath/spit etc., they'll only need to combine that with their DNA database they've been collecting for years to create a commodity worth billions they'll be able to oursource to security companies for a tidy profit.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Last time I set it up, Android Play didn't need a CC. (Or maybe I set one up and then deleted it to make sure I never accidentally bought anything.)
I am, however, starting to consider getting a "throwaway CC" like I use throwaway email addresses. Enough places want a CC, and I would be nice to have an account where I know that ANY charges on it are unwanted (and should be challenged/reversed).
Well, for most slashdotters, Apple may be the only chance they have to give someone else their DNA.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
You can't actually take the sample on the phone
I dunno. I'll bet you could convince a hell of a lot of people to spit on their phone, then mail it off to Apple.
1) The potential for abuse and discrimination in employment and insurance is immense. Good luck proving that you were discriminated against. It is really hard to prove biases and judgments based on stereotypes. The GINA Act that the Americans seem to think will protect them, is full of loop holes. For example, GINA does not cover life insurance, auto insurance and a few other types. It only covers health insurance. Good luck proving discrimination even in case of the health insurance.
2) I see that most common people (even the otherwise smart ones not trained in genetics) seem to have a lot of trouble understanding the nature of genetic data, the interactions of variations, and its multiple functional interpretations. If a child in school is found out to have a SNP that according to even an unvalidated/dubious study, renders a 'proclivity to aggression', or 'a tendency to depression', or 'lowers learning abilities by x%', he/she will be discriminated against. Doesn't matter if he has ten other redeeming SNPs that nullify the effect, or even makes it better. Doesn't matter that there are complex epigenetic, metabolic and even microbiomic (from our gut microbes) interactions. There are unambiguous genotypes, but those are far and few compared to the vast ocean of genetic variation. And if a child has any supposed 'suicidal' variation, that's even more trouble for him.
As a society we are far away from being mature about genetic variation. Hell, we haven't even accepted our racial differences. Some day we will all grow up collectively to handle our diversity. Just like we have learned to ignore photos on facebook profiles. But with genetic data which is immutable throughout our lives, I don't see that day being anywhere near.
I have seen a couple of pompous types at genomics conferences who were bragging that they put up their data and their kids' data online. It's just stupid. Even apple, with all their supposed stress on security and privacy, I cannot trust. I say this as an iPhone and iPad user.