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Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by peterlk on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:02AM (#24070488)
This has huge, far reaching privacy concerns.

How many folks here would like to give their DNA information to private equity?

Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by tyingq on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:15PM (#24073069)
"Blackstone is buying Ancestry.com from private equity firms Silver Lake, Spectrum Equity and Permira."

That cat was already out of the bag.

Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by dannykwells on Thursday August 06, 2020 @04:26PM (#24075082)
This - everyone freaking out over this is right, but ummmm, years too late.
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by snarf21 on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:03PM (#24072931)
Hopefully your family members haven't already done so for you.
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by llsf on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:24PM (#24073166)
Exactly this! This is not just a personal privacy decision (i.e. I give or not my DNA). If any of my family gave their DNA, I am now traceable. This is exponentially bad, and not regulated accordingly. The Blackstone Group is the private equity owning Motel 6... the very same Motel 6 that voluntary helped ICE by giving guest lists ?!? So what is next ? They also owned several companies in healthcare, including a company doing respiratory equipments and another one providing medical services. DNA collection should be regulated way more strictly.
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by csomar on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:31PM (#24073263)
Not trying to defend blackstone but they have half a trillion in AUM. I highly doubt they were directly involved in such decision.
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by obmelvin on Thursday August 06, 2020 @03:13PM (#24074401)
I don't understand what their AUM has to do with it?
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by derivagral on Thursday August 06, 2020 @05:29PM (#24075663)
I believe GP was trying to say that management of the owning company doesn't necessarily spend a great deal of time going through all the ongoing details of every business owned, compared to a company that might only have Ancestry.com as an asset.

I don't think this really alleviates concerns people have though.

Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by t-c-h on Thursday August 06, 2020 @05:24PM (#24075607)
You can be traced in many, many ways. From all the websites you visit, the accounts you have, social media posts and pictures, connections with others, camera's outside, your car, your job, whatever more. There's very little true privacy in modern urban life.

Yet, while privacy issues are a point of concern among geneticists when it comes to direct-to-consumer genetic testing, the general points of caution are directed to relational and emotional issues. Many people think little of the relational consequences genetic testing can bear, where family members are implicated often unwillingly. Another point is that people often make up wrong conclusions about their results and see them as some infallible passport of who they are, while the tests are limited in what they actually can tell. Or let's say tests show you have a disposition for increased disease risk. I doubt many give it a really good thought of whether they truly want to know and live with said knowledge for the rest of their lives.

Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by pontifier on Saturday August 08, 2020 @01:38AM (#24089338)
I'm not sure DNA is something that is even possible to protect. You leave samples of it everywhere you go, and you share most of it with everyone else anyway.

I happen to think my DNA is pretty good, but it's not like I had anything to do with that. It's more like I happen to like the seed for the minecraft world I'm playing.

I don't feel like I own my DNA in the same way that I own property or things. It helped me be who I am, but why would I stop someone else from looking at it or trying to use it in some way? As long as I get to keep using it, I'm happy.

Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by BurningFrog on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:04PM (#24076992)
Did it many years ago. Would do it again.
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by RocketSyntax on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:41PM (#24077170)
you have no idea how deep this goes. nations are selling data at population scale
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by swarnie_ on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:03PM (#24072925)
I don't see it making a difference. If someone is willing to give away their DNA in the first place i doubt they care who to.

Outside of this community how many people submitting their DNA to Ancestry looked up their privacy, data selling policies and shareholders? I don't imagine many.

Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by wolco on Thursday August 06, 2020 @03:02PM (#24074296)
You give away your dna when talking/breathing. If someone collected that or an old coffee cup.. now what?
Re:Blackstone to Acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7B by mypalmike on Thursday August 06, 2020 @03:50PM (#24074737)
There's a vast difference between a centralized, tagged database of DNA and the unanalyzed random DNA left by chance on coffee cups.