News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:U.S. police may now be able to access online DNA database... by Consultant32452 on Saturday November 16, 2019 @12:49PM (#21553899)
Okay, I'll start. How about ridding humanity of all manner of disease? How about designer drugs, custom made for your particular DNA? How about, to the extent intelligence is determined by DNA (80% by some estimates), increasing the intelligence of the population, furthering our understanding of the universe? How about my dad who suffered years of paralysis until a 23andme test revealed a genetic mutation his many, many doctors didn't consider and now he's mobile and active again just by taking inordinate amounts of B12 vitamins?

I'm a little concerned about things like insurance, but as long as our country still has plenty of guns I'm not worried about Hitler 2.0. Your country might be different.

Re:U.S. police may now be able to access online DNA database... by hilbert42 on Saturday November 16, 2019 @02:36PM (#21554467)
There are many ways around that problem that don't involve exposing one's DNA to police, government or anyone else.

One would be for everyone to have a secure certificated [not able to be forged] anonymous hierarchical ID where those who have access to the ID/database are ranked/rated. For example on a rank of 10, the user would rate 10, your doctor 7 the government would rate say 5, your bank say 3. Such a ranking system would set the level of access and what data could be taken from the user's record.

There are many other solutions too which I've not go time to go into here.

Unfortunately, governments won't like such a schema because it puts citizens back in charge (and bureaucracies have never liked that)

Re:U.S. police may now be able to access online DNA database... by Consultant32452 on Saturday November 16, 2019 @03:06PM (#21554634)
People won't use such a scheme because it's too complicated. And the people doing medical research need everyone's DNA in a big database so they can analyze it in bulk. There's relatively little scientific benefit in just a few people's DNA. And that concentration of information is where your concern is.

How about, if you want socialized healthcare, you pay the cost of privacy. We guarantee to pay for your healthcare, but your DNA is freely available in everyone's database? Signing up for Medicare/Medicaid? Submit a DNA sample. That will give a huge population for study and the rest, people who aren't on socialized healthcare, can protect their DNA if they want. If the government is paying for your healthcare, you already lost your privacy to them anyways.