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Posted on 01/07/2015 9:09:35 AM PST by Theoria
Today, 23andMe announced what Forbes reports is only the first of ten deals with big biotech companies: Genentech will pay up to $60 million for access to 23andMe's data to study Parkinson's. You think 23andMe was about selling fun DNA spit tests for $99 a pop? Nope, it's been about selling your data all along.
Since 23andMe started in 2006, it's convinced 800,000 customers to hand over their DNA, one vial of spit at a time. Personal DNA reports are the consumer-facing side of the business, and that's the one we're most familiar with. It all seems friendly and fun with a candy-colored logo and quirky reports that include the genetic variant for asparagus pee.
But 23andMe wasn't going to find a big business by selling spit kits at the cut rate of $99. Instead, it's always been about enticing customers to hand over their DNA sequences along with details of their lives in a questionnaire to build a giant database—one that academic researchers and biotech companies alike are, well, salivating over.
Big data has—excuse the metaphor—been in 23andMe's DNA from the beginning. The company was founded by Anne Wojcicki, who's married to (though now separated from) Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Last year, Wojcicki told the New York Times that the inspiration for 23andMe came from watching Google: "I remember in the early days of Google, Larry [Page] would say, 'I just want the world's data on my laptop.' I feel the same way about health care. I want the world's data accessible."
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Duh!
EVERYTHING is an invasion of privacy these days.
I will not be long before we hear that the gov’t is making ObamaCare medical files available for ‘research purposes’.
Heh, all your genes are belong to us!
“hand over their DNA sequences along with details of their lives in a questionnaire to build a giant database”
Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
:)
Yeah?
What. Would it be better for the government to do it?
Big data is great and we, humanity, can learn a lot from it.
Combine this with the huge amounts of information people are VOLUNTARILY providing through “social media” (please read...data entry), the huge databases the ancestry search folk have, and voila............
Think this will be used to actually ‘CURE’ a disease? Doubt it.
Just heard that 2/3 of cancers are not relate-able to any causal factors currently known. Age, genetics, environment, etc....nit. Simply bad luck.
There is more than enough computing power and storage and search capabilities to combine all this information into stored searchable form.
how can this be good?
KYPD
Wow, who would have seen that coming.
I’m sure that insurance companies are licking their chops right now...
Anything stopping you from fudging enough check boxes on the questionaire (including your name) to make it hard to tag the data to the recipient?
“Anything stopping you from fudging enough check boxes on the questionaire (including your name) to make it hard to tag the data to the recipient?”
Ha ha, don’t worry - they will match it up with a supposedly anonymous person eventually.
All hail big data... rah... seriously?!
23andMe was founded by the wife of Sergei Bren - of Google infamy.
I wonder how much of this information is combined with the genetic testing done routinely for newborns now.
State (Texas) to destroy 4 million newborn blood samples (kept without parental consent)
If you couldn’t figure out those DNA tests on Ancestry.com, etc. weren’t about the data base, you deserve what you get. And if you don’t submit a DNA test, one of your dingy relatives probably did and they’ll trace you on the lineage. It’s not bad enough your medical records are now on some gov computer but doctors are asking if you have guns in the house. Some banks won’t let you cash a check without getting your fingerprint. Of course, they’re tracing texts, keystrokes, phone calls, scanning mail and if you bought milk at the grocery store, etc. Everything is about Big Brother.
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Interesting. Thanks for the information.
Those ancestor sites have always been full of lies and misinformation so it might prove wise to enter a bunch of hooey to give Big Brother a moment’s pause when they’re tracking you.
Didn’t bother with any of that stuff....family stories tell me where I came from.....and unlike Liz Warren my family’s stories have proven to be true
“On November 22, 2013, after not hearing from 23andMe for six months, the FDA ordered 23andMe to stop marketing its Saliva Collection Kit and Personal Genome Service (PGS) as 23andMe had not demonstrated that they have “analytically or clinically validated the PGS for its intended uses” and the “FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device”. As of December 2, 2013, 23andMe has stopped all advertisements for its PGS test but is still selling the product. As of December 5, 2013, 23andMe is only selling raw genetic data and ancestry-related results.” - Wikipedia
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