23andMe and similar companies don't transcribe your entire genome because that would cost way more than they charge you. They just sample a few tiny sections of it.
Thank you for the recommendation! I've been on a lookout for an affordable full sequence and 400$ is very reasonable. Very excited to just have my DNA on my own computer - this feels like the good kind of sci-fi :)
I did fair amount of research, and it seems like they take it seriously with GDPR, HIPAA etc. and all the privacy legalities, but obviously Uncle Sam will have his way with it as it's a US based company (California). They will share your DNA if legally compelled.
There is a "permanent delete my data" option, but there's no independent audit that permanent delete actually deletes anything. If you're in EU/California they kinda have to take delete seriously due to GDPR and CCPA, so I think you're safer here.
I've been thinking about this a lot, and I'm not sure how "protectable" your DNA actually is because of how easy it is to get if somebody wants to. Obviously having your DNA in US government is bad, but they likely have it already.
As I'm an EU citizen I will get the data and use the delete option with fingers crossed that US government doesn't want to destroy me for whatever reason. Seems like they have their hands full with other kinds of destruction anyway lol
Probably not any 23andMe haven't already told you about. They test a limited set of SNPs, balancing between ones thought useful for genealogy, ones useful for ethnicity estimates and ones thought useful for health-related things (the latter they would like to make their main selling point, the two former are really all commercial DNA services' bread and butter).
It's unlikely that they would luck into testing some unknown SNP which turned out to be relevant for disease.
23andMe tests SNP's (single nucleotides) that are inferred to be significant in protein function/epigenitics.
Those SNP's i believe are testd from primers
so what 23andMe does is specifically on the back of previous research and afaik their data isnt technically clinically significant as most findings need confirmation or more tests.
Why not? There is no logical reason as to why this would not work, IF it works in the first place, which I don't know. In theory the problem space here is finite, so there is of course a way to predict everything. Whether this is the case right now - who knows; I probably don't think it is currently ready. But eventually it will be. And it should not be in the hands of private companies.
So it sounds like you're coming to this with very little knowledge about biology. I encourage reading up on modern challenges in pathogenic prediction, especially with regards to SNPs: on their own, with the exception of a few diseases, individual SNP predictions are meaningless in terms of actual pathogenicity.
If the manufacturers responsibly included a responsible way to install custom software/firmware, perhaps people would feel more inclined to help them. Their current attitude buys them very little goodwill.
The feed options sound good in principle, although I expect the implementation to be deliberately hobbled. I've tried Facebook's existing (well hidden) chronological feed and it turns out there's so much spam in local groups that I found it unusable.
The bigger issue is the toxic "papers please" identity verification will result in a lot fewer "Australians" on the internet, who will now show up from various VPN endpoint countries, so presumably won't get the algorithm option.
Nowadays you can filter out spam from your feed if you can roughly formulate what you want to see there (or DON'T want to see)
E.g I filter my RSS feed using a small tool I built for myself. It doesn't support Facebook, but maybe you can find it useful: https://knoless.app
I would add it was also completely ineffective since the site in question was hosted on wordpress.com, which is about as likely to work as ddosing Google.
In theory the monroe doctrine, as it was originally written, requires the USA to remain neutral on existing colonies. It only prohibits the expansion of European colonies in the Americas.
Indeed. The interpretation that served as a justification for US interventionism came almost a century later (the Roosevelt Corollary in 1904).
In its original form, the Monroe doctrine declared attempts by European monarchies to reconquer the newly independent Spanish states to be an unfriendly act toward the US. It did not declare US domination over them, as it's commonly misunderstood nowadays.
I use no commercial reuse (NC) yet years ago a polite young man from China emailed me letting me know that he was translating my stuff to resell under his name for money. To be honest, I didn’t mind and it made a good story to tell friends and family.
I had something similar happen with a book I wrote through a publisher. I went radio silence on him. Would have required contacting my publisher and I didn't need the hassle.
That's one of the reasons that defining NC broke down in the latest round of CC license revisions. Sure, even in the US, define NC as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. But that doesn't mean some mom-and-pop charity you agree with. It can easily mean a non-profit with goals you totally disagree with. And how about 501(c)(6)s like the NFL? And that's just US tax law.
The current argument AI owners use is that it falls under fair use as "transformative use", so the licence is entirely irrelevant. If that wasn't the case anything trained on GPL code would have to be released under the GPL.
I'm now sure what if any argument they are using in Europe. Most countries here have a "fair dealing" exemption which is similar to USA "fair use", but it doesn't include "transformative use". The closest would be "pastiche", but that wouldn't really cover it.
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