The 23andMe heist reminds us of how fragile our privacy is in the digital age — to the extent it exists at all.
Like most of the 14 million other Americans who surrendered their saliva for DNA evaluation with 23andMe, I was mostly curious to find out whether I had any interesting ancestors or, even better, if I qualify as a minority. Like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, I had always been told I was part Native American.Along came the genetic-testing fad, and I took the leap. What a disappointment. Except for a tiny fraction of Viking and less than 0.
Social media have played an outsize role in disseminating targeted hate — and not just toward Jews. It was only a matter of time before some educated kook hacked the genetic playground to access specific groups’ personal information. In an email to its customers, 23andMe offered tips for dealing with the piracy of their privacy, such as changing passwords and using two-factor authentication.
The 23 heist reminds us how fragile our privacy is in the digital age — to the extent it exists at all. Some experts have suggested that DNA companies should be subject to rules and regulations in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects individuals’ health information from unauthorized use, access and disclosure. But then, no law is an obstacle to hackers, who might never be caught. In the future, hackers won’t even be human.
At a hacker convention in 2016, a game was played called Cyber Grand Challenge, in which computers competed with each other to hack programs defended by artificial intelligence. As reported inearlier this year, “what transpired that day was a sobering glimpse of a not-too-distant future when AIs can find and exploit vulnerabilities with superhuman speed, scope, scale, and sophistication. These future AI hackers won’t be limited to computers.
Suddenly, it doesn’t seem that important for anyone to know they are more likely than other people to itch from mosquito bites. In my case, it’s also false, or at least irrelevant. Mosquitoes apparently find me unpalatable. As for 23andMe, I’m out.
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