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DNA, Data Privacy, and You
Your DNA will soon be on file, if it’s not already. What will the consequences be?
In 2011, historian Yuval Noah Harari predicted that algorithms will at some point “know us better than we know ourselves.” On many digital platforms, this is already happening.
When you scroll through YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook, you don’t have to worry about what you want to watch next. Heck, you don’t even know what you want to watch next. The algorithm does the choosing for you — and it does a pretty good job because it’s come to know you through likes, comments, and watch time.
But outsourcing your subconscious preferences isn’t free. You pay by allowing your eyes to remain glued to your devices for hours on end. The more ads you consume, the more profits you generate for your favorite platforms.
The problem is, those platforms care little about side effects like disinformation, political outrage, psychological harm, and terrorism. Frankly, even we, the users, don’t seem worried about our personal data being used against our best interests.
In fact, we consider online platforms convenient enough to be worth a slice of our privacy. We hope to keep that slice tiny, but deep down we know those data-driven companies will always be hungry for more. As a matter of fact, your DNA data is next on their menu — which would’ve been fine-ish if you had a say in the matter.
Unfortunately, recent developments show that companies may no longer need your consent to leverage your biological data.
The criminal case that let the DNA genie out of the privacy bottle
On April 24, 2018, the police came knocking at Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.’s door. At the time, he was 73 years old and had been retired for about a year. Neighbors and family must have thought he was being arrested for an old burglary or an unpaid invoice — things he’d done in the past. But they were wrong.
DeAngelo turned out to be the Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized the state of California between 1974 and 1986. He was involved with at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries.
