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Voluntary DNA tests fall somewhere between "bad idea" and "danger, stay away" as documented pretty well here previously. It's not surprising that tech- and privacy- minded people might hold this position, but now that position is being echoed by the U.S. Pentagon.
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernan and James Stewart, acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said [in a Dec. 20th memo] that DNA testing companies were targeting military members with discounts and other undisclosed incentives. "Tests that provide health information have varying levels of validity, and many are not reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration before they are offered," the memo said.
The tests might [pose] more risk to military members than regular consumers. Inaccuracies could negatively affect the required disclosure of those members' medical information, the memo said. "Moreover, there is increased concern in the scientific community that outside parties are exploiting the use of genetic materials for questionable purposes, including mass surveillance and the ability to track individuals without their authorization or awareness," the memo said. The officials told military personnel to refrain from using the kits until otherwise notified.
[...]
[C]onsumer advocates have cautioned the tens of millions of people who have used at-home DNA kits... "at the end of the day you may have a good time but the company now can sell that information 100 different ways," Peter Pitts, of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, told NBC News in 2017. "You don't want that information displayed to other people," he added. "Ultimately you don't want an employer to have access to your information."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Thursday December 26 2019, @05:09AM (5 children)
You're telling me ISIS can now analyze a bloodstain (the body, alive or dead, is long gone), figure out the family members, and send a team off to the middle of the USA to kill the family?
I can think of dozens of reasons why these home DNA kits are A Bad Idea (tm), but not seeing how being in the military makes it worse.
Fact is, these home DNA kits are privacy nightmares. Not seeing how it's worse for the military (or cops, or city council members) than for the average Joe.
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @05:29AM
Because DNA evidence could be used to successfully prosecute US war criminals when travelling internationally?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday December 26 2019, @05:31AM (1 child)
How can it be worse? Ok, here's what I could think of in 30 seconds. They can analyse your cigarette butt or water bottle that you dropped, then have someone find where your daughter goes to school. Now you're compromised.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @07:57AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 26 2019, @08:41AM
TFS didn't specify ISIS, or any other group. You're tracked on the internet all the time, do you think it's ISIS doing it? I don't think so, there are a zillion other 3rd party actors who want to make use of my data. DNA is just more data for data collectors. The DoD doesn't want it's people tracked by anyone, do they?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday December 26 2019, @03:24PM
The hollywood plots are kinda ridiculous.
Far more likely, find some woman soldier working in commo section and her 23andme username is her full legal name and her password is "password" and it just so happens she's not genetically related to the guy who thinks he's her genetic father, and someone could keep quiet about that if she would just:
1) sex with a fellow soldier or similar "service" such as faking paperwork related to NCOER grading or AFPT results or weigh in results or perhaps faking paperwork for a spy or acting as a mule for classified documents or similar.
2) "donate" money to 3rd world terror org
3) pay money to fellow soldier to keep quiet leading to needing money leading to ease of corruption.
4) accidentally photocopy the daily commo code key sheet and accidentally leave it at her lunch table for a foreign national to pick up, and I'm sure properly dispose of.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Thursday December 26 2019, @11:39AM
"Moreover, there is increased concern in the scientific community that outside parties are exploiting the use of genetic materials for questionable purposes, including mass surveillance and the ability to track individuals without their authorization or awareness,"
Do I get this right that the pentagon, you know the cult symbol shaped HQ of 'total information awareness' is now concerned they might be tracked without their authorization or awareness.
What if I told you the entire pentagon surveillance program that makes privacy impossible in the united states is the exact definition of 'tracking without authorization or awareness' of the target?
The u.s. military gets so picky about when to apply actual security principles.
The memes almost write themselves:
https://archive.is/YkJr8 [archive.is]
https://archive.is/Eu1Z4 [archive.is]
https://archive.is/5II5U [archive.is]
https://archive.is/HTALt [archive.is]
If you would like to see the United States survive next year, I would spread those as far as you can.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @01:59PM (1 child)
If there are diseases caused by things like chemical exposure (cancers) that can be tracked by DNA mutations, then I can see why they might issue this kind of warning. IOW, please don't check your DNA cause we fucked it up and don't want the criminal liability.
Though I would generally agree. People who use these services are under the false impression that it won't be used for nefarious purposes. I had a relation that got one, and I was tempted to sue them because the relation means that part of my DNA was exposed to public scrutiny as well. Of course the military takes DNA for all their soldiers on a compulsory basis. And likely that data isn't much more secure than that held by private firms.
My expectation is that at some point, there is going to be a new "eugenics" craze. Putting your DNA in a database for the privilege of a getting a sheet of paper back is potentially exposing your progeny to future persecution. Bad idea.
But what I find most interesting, is how my disk suddenly spun up as soon as I typed the word "eugenics". So much for free speech.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 26 2019, @02:34PM
Weird indeed given it was an SSD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday December 26 2019, @03:31PM (2 children)
There's two military memes at work.
First the military is one of the only large organizations in our civilization that at least occasionally care about their people. Not that the military is perfect, but more like everything else is shit and full of self serving psychopaths via unnatural selection. So its one of the few orgs who CAN stand up and tell the little people "this particular thing is bullshit"
Secondly the military is full of overworked people carrying the weight of less overworked people, so the simple squeaky wheel thats the easiest to hit, gets the grease. Some high level CO was informed that one idiot blackmailed the other idiot and the tech used to blackmail involved genetic testing and rather than addressing why there's people in the military who participate in blackmail and why the secret and top secret clearance process is fucked up such that the blackmail was possible, its easier to brush it all under the rug with "uh... yeah no more genetic testing, find a new creative way to F up your lives". It doesn't fix the problem that humans are not 100% infalliable or that some systems are F-ed up but it does make it look like that CO is doing something even when he's not. The point of this announcement isn't to actually fix anything, but to make Kernan and Stewart look like they're doing something on resume bullet points.
Its a tricky balance point if the net is positive or negative... probably positive?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @05:06PM
Says the racist who cssually drops in "unnatural selection" as a polite nod to eugenics. Your qhole premise is derply glawed, the military is thenonly org that occasionally cares about people? I've seen you post some ignorant shit, but that one is appallingly stupid.
Oh well, racist VLM saying stupid shit is no big surprise.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @06:21PM
First you have to know if the net outcome is for the military to be strengthened or weakened. Which is the positive and which the negative?