Has anybody done 23andme test from Argentina?

[Quilombo]

I’m curious to find out if anybody has done the 23andme test from Argentina because you have to send a saliva sample through the mail.
When I was born my mother made me a genealogy tree that dates back to the 19th Century. I know I have European ancestry from both sides of the family. But I'm wondering whether the $100.00 price tag is worth it or if it’s just a waste of money.

I did mine back up north, but you can get it here via Tiendamia. (same company I bought my laptop with) and they deliver it straight to your apt here, nothing you gotta do with Audana. You can then mail it back to them from here, or have a friend drop it in the mail when they're back in the US.

Are you aware that all these DNA test companies share data with the feds, and you wind up in a national DNA database used by FBI and all the other alphabet soup agencies?

I understand you're not the real DB Cooper, but this has potential implications not just for you but for anyone related to you, and opens up a whole can of worms re potential false accusations.

And then there's the potential for sharing with other private companies who may do god-knows-what with your DNA info.

Just saying. And yeah yeah yeah, I know, but paranoia is defined as an unreasonable fear, and in this day of rapidly advancing biotech, who is to say where lies the boundary between reasonable and unreasonable?

I don't think it's paranoid, I just think that not doing a 23andMe because of this is weird because the government already has tons of info on us anyways, and could very easily obtain our DNA surreptitiously if it wanted to without having to rely on a 3rd party.

The government here already has all our fingerprints, and the FBI, DHS, MI5, RCMP, and Guardia Nacional, etc. have your irises if you have Global Entry, so for me it was like whatever, but I still get people's reluctance, they just should keep in mind that not doing a 23andMe won't stop the government from collecting info on you illegally.

 

[Alfred_Arnold]

The government here already has all our fingerprints, and the FBI, DHS, MI5, RCMP, and Guardia Nacional, etc. have your irises if you have Global Entry, so for me it was like whatever, but I still get people's reluctance, they just should keep in mind that not doing a 23andMe won't stop the government from collecting info on you illegally.

The "threat model" here isn't the government surreptitiously collecting our DNA, it's that the DNA was voluntarily submitted to a private company that retains some rights over this data because of the voluntarily submission and acceptance of the terms of services.

 

[Redpossum]

The "threat model" here isn't the government surreptitiously collecting our DNA, it's that the DNA was voluntarily submitted to a private company that retains some rights over this data because of the voluntarily submission and acceptance of the terms of services.

Oh, but everyone here always carefully reads the ToS before they agree, right?

 

[sts7049]

related note, this is a pretty handy site that give you info about many companies' ToS

Frontpage -- Terms of Service; Didn't Read

“Terms of Service; Didn't Read” (short: ToS;DR) is a project started in June 2012 to help fix the “biggest lie on the web”: almost no one really reads the terms of service we agree to all the time.

tosdr.org

 

[Brian_is_here]

A legit concern is insurance and private medical companies could reject you based on your proclivity to certain genetic conditions.

 

[Frank2000]

Are you aware that all these DNA test companies share data with the feds, and you wind up in a national DNA database used by FBI and all the other alphabet soup agencies?

I understand you're not the real DB Cooper, but this has potential implications not just for you but for anyone related to you, and opens up a whole can of worms re potential false accusations.

And then there's the potential for sharing with other private companies who may do god-knows-what with your DNA info.

Just saying. And yeah yeah yeah, I know, but paranoia is defined as an unreasonable fear, and in this day of rapidly advancing biotech, who is to say where lies the boundary between reasonable and unreasonable?

No these companies do not share data with any law enforcement. The law enforcement has to get a court order for a specific individual's data, and even then that said individual or the DNA sharing company might appeal it.

What you probably heard was that a rape kit containing the DNA of Golden State Killer, was developed to create a DNA profile which was uploaded to GEDmatch by law enforcement. They used a fake account and found a relative of the Golden State Killer (some nephew or something like that). Upon interviewing the relative they deduced who the Golden State Killer was.

A lot of people upload their DNA profiles themselves to GEDmatch. I can download my profile from 23andMe if I want as an excel file and then upload it to GEDmatch if I wanted to find relatives that are not in 23andMe. GEDmatch has many more profiles.

 

[Redpossum]

No these companies do not share data with any law enforcement. The law enforcement has to get a court order for a specific individual's data, and even then that said individual or the DNA sharing company might appeal it.

What you probably heard was that a rape kit containing the DNA of Golden State Killer, was developed to create a DNA profile which was uploaded to GEDmatch by law enforcement. They used a fake account and found a relative of the Golden State Killer (some nephew or something like that). Upon interviewing the relative they deduced who the Golden State Killer was.

A lot of people upload their DNA profiles themselves to GEDmatch. I can download my profile from 23andMe if I want as an excel file and then upload it to GEDmatch if I wanted to find relatives that are not in 23andMe. GEDmatch has many more profiles.

Genealogy hobbyist database sells out to FBI-linked forensic genetic sequencing firm

A controversial genetics database has turned over 1.3 million customer profiles – believed to overlap with 60 percent of white Americans’ DNA – to a forensics firm that mines genetic data for law enforcement. What could go wrong?

www.rt.com

and

Police can request your DNA without your knowledge or consent via ancestry websites

Police can request DNA evidence which can be used without your knowledge or consent, whether you used popular ancestry sites or not.

www.rt.com

 

[Frank2000]

Genealogy hobbyist database sells out to FBI-linked forensic genetic sequencing firm

A controversial genetics database has turned over 1.3 million customer profiles – believed to overlap with 60 percent of white Americans’ DNA – to a forensics firm that mines genetic data for law enforcement. What could go wrong?

www.rt.com

and

Police can request your DNA without your knowledge or consent via ancestry websites

Police can request DNA evidence which can be used without your knowledge or consent, whether you used popular ancestry sites or not.

www.rt.com

Russia Today? Even there you can read about 23and Me:

“As the 5 requests resulting in zero information provided indicates, we resist all of these requests. For perspective, 5 requests with over 3 million customers is 0.0002% worth of requests in 11 years. That's less than rare,” 23andMe spokesman Andy Kill told RT.com.

"Though the company hasn’t ruled out providing information to authorities in the future. “We would always review a request and take it on a case-by-case basis,” privacy officer Kate Black told told WJAX on Thursday."

and about Ancestry:

"Ancestry explained it does not “share any information with law enforcement unless compelled to by valid legal process, such as a court order or search warrant.” It said in Ursy’s case the DNA was part of a “database we purchased that was an open and publicly available research resource at the time we bought it. After this case, we made the database private to help protect the privacy of our customers.”

Just don't upload your data to public databases, if you don't want others (including the law enforcement) to access it. I repeat these for profit companies (private databases), which process your spit to create a DNA profile, do not turn around and dump all the data to law enforcement. As I said before, it is case by case and a court ordered is required, and even then it does not mean they will comply.