DNA tracking through commercial services

[ABSR 5325]

24 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

So far, no response. I've msged all the people I can find and included a fairly detailed story. I'm letting my second cousin work her angles for a bit - I mean, they know she is related to them so maybe they'll respond to her. Always fun to just pop up with "Hi, you probably don't know I exist, but I'm related to you. Suprise!" Eventually one of them will come around. I know my half brother's wife saw my first msg to her, according to FB msger. Eventually I'll start dialing some of the numbers I believe belong to my mother/step father/half brother. But that's going to be after a long wait.

If you have reached out via emails or FB to people and they don't respond you should not start trying to track down phone numbers or other methods.  Reaching out is one thing and like you said you took a choice away from them, but if they have not responded then they HAVE made a choice and further intrusive action by you is uncalled for.

[Asithappens 974]

On 4/26/2018 at 9:06 PM, Mojo Hand said:

Apparently the cops caught the Golden State killer by sending his DNA sample to a commercial service, like 23andme or ancestry.com, where it came up with a potential relative, and then they figured out who in that family tree fit the profile.   Unclear whether they notified the service or just pretended they were submitting a personal sample.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5ae25c20e4b04aa23f215823

Am I overreacting in thinking that this is a pretty chilling, though perhaps inevitable, development?   Are we finally getting close to Gattaca territory?  For those those who haven't seen it, there's a scene where investigators vaccum up a room and run the DNA of all the skin cells to find out who was there.

I'm not saying that anything can or even should be done about this.  I don't know.  But it definitely gives me some pause to know that because my dad ran his DNA ancestry, my kids and I and all of our descendents can now be so easily tracked by DNA samples.

Yeah, to answer your question, in this particular case I think you're overreacting. Don't be a serial killer. Or even a cereal killer. 

The toothpaste can't be put back into the tube (or some other bullshit law school saying you wish to apply here). 

DNA. Facial recognition. Cell phone location data. 

But look on the bright side. Global climate change will kill us all before Big Brother ships us off to the Gulag. 

[Mojo Hand 4580]

Just now, Asithappens said:

Yeah, to answer your question, in this particular case I think you're overreacting. Don't be a serial killer. Or even a cereal killer. 

The toothpaste can't be put back into the tube (or some other bullshit law school saying you wish to apply here). 

DNA. Facial recognition. Cell phone location data. 

But look on the bright side. Global climate change will kill us all before Big Brother ships us off to the Gulag. 

Hey, I'm glad they're catching killers and rapists with it.  But this process can sweep much more broadly than that.   It can't be totally stopped, but I still think it's worth noting that we're now at the point where that scene from Gattaca, where the government vaccums keyboards for skin cells to see who was sitting at a terminal, is no longer only in the realm of sci-fi.

Before, there was still the limitation that the government doesn't have a DNA registry of all Americans.   Now, a small percentage of people have created such a registry voluntarily, which expands out exponentially with the addition of genealogical research.   And, as DNA sequencing technology improves, the recovery and testing of the DNA we shed all over the place will become easier and easier. 

[Asithappens 974]

8 minutes ago, Mojo Hand said:

Hey, I'm glad they're catching killers and rapists with it.  But this process can sweep much more broadly than that.   It can't be totally stopped, but I still think it's worth noting that we're now at the point where that scene from Gattaca, where the government vaccums keyboards for skin cells to see who was sitting at a terminal, is no longer only in the realm of sci-fi.

Before, there was still the limitation that the government doesn't have a DNA registry of all Americans.   Now, a small percentage of people have created such a registry voluntarily, which expands out exponentially with the addition of genealogical research.   And, as DNA sequencing technology improves, the recovery and testing of the DNA we shed all over the place will become easier and easier. 

I'm reminded of the Oracle in The Matrix.

You know what's really going to bake your noodle? AI. Skynet. That shit is coming. Quantum computing. VR.  Mankind is going to evolve itself right out of existence.

[relapse98 634]

So yeah.

My second cousin texted me today and I called her back. She found one of mom's phone numbers and finally got through. She caught up with her, it's been a few years since they have talked, and then moved onto mentioning that she had done Ancestry blah blah and then mentioned she had found a second cousin named me. And mom got really quiet and then just said no. Apparently my half brother's wife had in fact read my facebook message and talked to her and she told her it must be a scam. So for now, mom doesn't want any contact and has asked that I not contact her family (I mean technically, my family too, but whatever. I can discuss that with a shrink later). I told the second cousin, who has been amazing in all this, that I'll respect her wishes and to let mom know that if she ever wants my contact information, that she has it and can give it to her.

 

Sometimes pandora's box wins. Sometimes you win. This time the box won. At least I know a LOT more about that side than I did before.

And, the bright side, my second cousin is back in touch with mom. So that's something good to come out of it.

Edited June 14, 2019 by relapse98