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The Pentagon issued a similar warning about for-profit genetic testing companies back in 2019, and COVID-19 is reigniting those concerns, for good reason.
HIPAA doesn’t apply here, there are no federal laws governing their privacy practices — and your DNA is immutable. https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1356039949561290752
HIPAA doesn’t apply here, there are no federal laws governing their privacy practices — and your DNA is immutable. https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1356039949561290752
Here’s the Pentagon’s 2019 warning about for-profit/direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies: https://twitter.com/rvawonk/status/1209523804298514432
This might provide some context for the Pentagon’s concerns about Americans’ use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies: https://twitter.com/williamyang120/status/1355739197890457605
And here’s some relevant information about the private equity firm that owns your DNA if you use Ancestry, which was acquired by Blackstone in 2020. https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1291342590193926146
Also, read the consent forms at hospitals and doctor’s offices. Always read them, all the way through, even (especially) if you are being rushed into signing them. The thread below describes my personal experience with this last summer. https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1269293209945022470
(I will say, though, that your genetic data is safer, in theory, in the hands of medical professionals at research hospitals due to HIPAA & other privacy laws that don’t apply to direct-to-consumer companies. It’s still a risk, but a more reasonable one).
