DNA-Based Advertising Redefines Commercial "Ad-Targeting"

An anonymous reader writes: Hidden among the customary disclaimers about how the website intends to use the information it holds about you, ancestry.com states that it reserves the right to leverage the genotyping tests of users (who have contributed their DNA to AncestryDNA research) in order to serve back 'relevant' advertising via the site. Critics of the clause believe that the site's promise to delete a user's genome on request is devalued both by the possibility of data breaches and by the fact that data brokers and other third parties are both unlikely to honor (or even know about) removal requests, and are likely to improve at leveraging genetic information in the future.

Comments

EULA

[Anonymous Coward]

I always write my own terms when i visit websites and include them in the HTTP request. When I visited ancestry.com for example, it included the statement "by transmitting HTML content to my computer, you hereby agree to allow me to grind your teeth down with a tool of my choice".

Re:They're Mormans...

[turkeydance]

Maroons. as in: "what a Maroon." cite: Bugs Bunny link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo

The ultimate identity theft!

[PolygamousRanchKid]

1) Tell a person that he might be a descendant of ancient Irish Kings.
2) Collect a DNA sample to verify.
3) Clone the person, from the DNA sample.
4) Kill the original person, and replace him with the clone.
5) Instruct the clone to change his last will and testament, leaving all his wealth to you.
6) Kill the clone, making it look like an accident.

Re:The ultimate identity theft!

[Cro Magnon]

1) Tell a person that he might be a descendant of ancient Irish Kings.
2) Collect a DNA sample to verify.
3) Clone the person, from the DNA sample.
4) Somehow magically make the person age n years in a matter of days
5) Somehow magically apply all the nurture the person ever received to the clone so that it will actually be similar to the person (including things like handwriting)
6) Befriend the clone and get him to totally trust you. This is necessary for step 8, and will also help with step 9
7) Kill the original person, and replace him with the clone.
8) Instruct the clone to change his last will and testament, leaving all his wealth to you.
9) Instead of instructing the clone to kill itself, kill it yourself and make it look like an accident

greedy bastards

[swell]

Advertising? It is my impression that Ancestry requires members to pay dues. Why would you pay and still be faced with advertising? Most services are supported by one or the other.

I have a long family history that has been published in a book with occasional updates for over a century. AFAIK, they don't have most of this info. I considered exchanging my information for whatever the Mormons might have to add to it. But the more I learn about them, the less inclined I am to give them anything. They gather our information and lock it up behind a paywall. You pay to give it, you pay to get it. We need an Open Source (wiki?) approach to public record sharing.

Business is business

[Earthquake Retrofit]

Identifying people genetically predisposed to be suckers is the bread and butter of business. Getting them to pay for the privilege of being taken to cleaners is icing on the cake.

DNA swap meet

[sociocapitalist]

Swap parties - exchange your DNA for someone else at random, everyone pays for one DNA analysis and exchanges the analysis with their random swap partner.

Just to fuck up these companies who want to own us.

Advertisers cull.

[Anonymous Coward]

At this point in history we really need to have a huge cull of anyone involved in the "advertising" industry.

What do they contribute to society ? Sneakiness, total lack of respect for people, etc. etc. etc.

The planet would be better without their kind on it.