Tyler talks about 23andMe, Ancestry & DNA Test Services. On Amazon Prime Day, Tyler got enticed into buying 23andMe after a couple years of holding off. Tyler talks about both the excitement and worry of getting ancestry and health results, which could include information that shows him at higher risk for certain diseases. Tyler also talks about the privacy risks of using a service like this and the increasing use of these companies by law enforcement and immigration officers. What do you think? Have you used one of these services? Would you? Is there a risk? Is it accurate? And is it worth it for the information you can get?
Links from video:
https://www.23andme.com/en-ca/
https://www.familytreedna.com/sign-in
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2522-inside-shady-world-dna-testing-companies.html
https://globalnews.ca/news/2879276/privacy-risks-lurk-in-dna-tests-experts-warn/
Transcripted (Unedited)
Oh, everyone hope everything’s going well. It’s tier today. I want to talk about something that’s I think really interesting to obviously me, but to a lot of people. And we’re continuing to see the use of it and the growth of.
Well, I go right here, I’m not 23. I met his… is the little package where you can get both your ancestry and your health through some DNA sampling, pretty a little spit and a kit. I haven’t actually opened us up.
I did open up the plastic part ’cause I don’t want you to see me struggle with that, but I do wanna check out quickly. What was inside here.
Very nice I… let’s get started. Everything feels really quite the whole branding and everything that they’ve done with a lot of these packages is all really sweet and kind, as we remind me of candy back when you were a kid and how enticing everything looks. So not too much in there. This is the kit you can see “pittas baby here. We send it in, think eight weeks or so. Actually, it comes back and you get a pretty massive report on both your ancestry and then also your health and even more than that, you actually get a kit of basically your results in raw data as well to it. So I haven’t looked as much into that, but apparently a top of ancestry dot com and 23, and me and a couple of these other platforms of services, there are actually some companies that do more of the broad data so you can actually plug your data in and get even more insights out of that than these other programs will give you.
And so really interesting time that we have the ability to do this, we are in a very early stage in it, and so is just a couple of things that I wanted to talk about in terms of it today.
Just looking at a couple of the looking at 23 me looking at a couple of competitors and then maybe some of the issues around this as well, too. And I have an intern in the office, right now. I felt victim. This is an Amazon Prime falling victim to… and I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, because it was not… we don’t know that much about my family really on both sides, and so it’s quite a mystery a… a lot of the background of our family, and that’s something that I think increasingly, people wanna know as we… as we look forward to the future. So many people, or one understand where they came from, what their history is, what their geology is a part of the world they came from because there so much you can understand and really bring into your life if you know where you came from. And so it’s definitely a drive for this right now. I think the piece of the story telling of being will tell yourself stories of who your ancestors were I think is really enticing. And so there’s no question that this… there’s a reason why this is… they’ve become so paper. And of course with the technology now, it made it easier and ever and I think over time, and obviously what they claim as well. too, the more data they get, the more human genes, they get the ancestry and different connections, especially on Ancestry and the ones where you’re trying to build your family tree, the more accurate these tests are gonna be… I just wanted to pull over here.
I think when I pop up in the corner here, just wanted to take a look at some of the site and everything as well here, too. It’s not ad for a 23 Mile but I just want to look at the stuff and sort of just have just think about a touch a couple of things, look at a couple of things on it and really go through a look at a couple of the competitors and just talk about some of the things around it. And so, the Helen ancestry services, just the one I got was on sale at Amazon.
This gives you both sides important through the whole thing. They are very, very clear that everything is fun and easy and nice to do. King at the different types of 23 pairs of chromosomes. One unique you. There’s a ton of data in a whole thing. seems really cool, and the fact that it’s just saliva, you just have to spin it into it. I think it obviously really lowers the barrier to entry for people who, maybe we’re gonna have to get blood samples, or anything in the past as well too. And so obviously there are some really real benefits about doing this. Just pull up the… how it works. “pahar quickly to see, yeah, just a no blood and order spin luck. We got the pop-up coming up here already fit and discover. So yeah, approximately six to eight weeks. They will send you an email to let you know your reports are online so you can actually then go in, check out the reports and really get a ton of access.
And so I’ve done a little bit of research into everything that people get back of what a couple of these reaction videos for people who are… so getting a result since pretty cool to see a lot of excitement and it does seem to be some really valuable stuff that you can get especially I am interested in seeing the health problems in my family and some of them are like I said, You don’t know the people there, sort of mysteries. And so, hopefully, we get some decent positive results back on that, but that’s it of part of doing this test. And this is where some… one of the first really interesting sort of things comes up with the idea of just learning this stuff. So, I get, I do this test and I get to… you have this gene that puts you at a higher predisposition to cancer. What affects Doug that come out of your life once you know that information? And so the same thing, you know people who go to not a story teller, but a future teller or if they’re trying to get a little bit insights on their future and just because that person says something about your future, then you start to fulfill that and fulfill that prophecy. So that’s a really interesting… a little piece that I’m interested in this whole thing and to see and wonder how many people have felt that way, how many people have gotten results that they were really surprised at and obviously ones that have been the other may be negative or positive, and were increasingly again, say more of the stuff.
One of the really funny things that I saw was there’s a TV show and I’m trying to think of it off the top of the head right now, but what they do is they go back and actually explore they explore like celebrities geology, and all this stuff. And so they had an episode of it, with Larry David on who had actually been playing Bernie Sanders on Saturday live and they actually did the test and found out that Larry David and Bernie Sanders were related, and so it was just one of those hilarious moments and coincidences, and you really start to see how possible some of these connections are and just how intricate your family history it can be. So a couple of things that I wanted to just look at what is your DNA, what can I say about your health? A Street Health rest wellness carrier status and the traits, how accurate are the reports? So I meet standard. They meet standards, and to say 23 met with the claim is that it meets standards for clinical and scientific talent. When I was doing this picking on which one to actually use really was obviously part of it came down to price like most decisions, but from seeing the reviews, especially for looking at the health piece 23 and Me is a really good option if you’re looking to do more of the family tree building and ancestry than you wanna go for more. I think my family DNA ancestry and a couple of other ones here to my heritage, which is I think is a pretty decent one as well, too. 23n thing, I think is crazy is that it was founded by… what’s her name here, it’s Kepler Linda AV Paul A and then an Act in 2006, to provide genetic testing and interpretation to individual consumers in 2007, Google invested 39 million into the company. And the girl a week.
Probably butchering that name. She was actually married to the Google co-founder Sergey Brin at that time. And so, sir, Iran is obviously a legend and one of the founders of Google. It’s really interesting to see the support obviously the marriage help them that, but for a company that we obviously talk a ton about the ramifications of privacy being Google to see that there’s such a close connection between 23 and Me and Google is a little bit alarming there. So the question of course always a… what are the priorities of the companies who are the people who are in charge of these companies, what do they see moving forward?
And of course there’s a ton of text on the site to make you at least believe and try to feel safe about where your data is going. But one of the things that we’ve seen and continue to see is that there may be risks associated with doing this and where you know you can lose your password online and you can change your password and replace your security level if you’re broad tangent at codes on line. And really it’s cost. He right person, the right technology and the right knowledge. Someone can get a ton of information from that code are saying that you can basically predict the shape of someone’s face and even some facial qualities, based on it. And I’m gonna pull up here in a second. But it’s also being used in some law enforcement stuff as well, too. So a couple of things that are interesting to see just going back to the accurate rigorous quality standards, they say, health reincarnate reports meets criteria for scientifically and clinically, valid, so they’re definitely trying to get to a level of a more scientifically valid and safe and Ancestry percentage is a derived from powerful Wales system that provides you with Ancestry, estimates down, to the zero percent. So what I’ve seen from doing the Inter-reading is that there are people who believe that there are some pretty big inconsistencies and inaccuracies. In the reports that they’re getting. And if you go to, for example, Ancestry and then you’ve got a 23 and Me and you go, to another one and do all the test, you’re gonna get some pretty wide wide responses or ride results for what you’re getting and across those different kinds of packages.
And so another thing to maybe be a little bit alarmed of… and it’s one of those things I looking at my results, I’m gonna take them with a grain of salt, because I don’t want to base any information, I really, my life around stuff that might not be true or something that is in that they just don’t have enough information on. I think that’s a really scary thing. Obviously, I’m interested in this stuff, but it does seem like we’re so early in this. So there definitely it definitely seems to be a couple things that you wanna be as attentive. Balliol. Your privacy is a priority, you are in control, it says, “You choose how your personal genetic information is used and share. And they say We will not share your individual data with your… with your explicit consent, so this is a big piece that you should have to basically give explicit consent before any of the information goes out and, of course, to will not provide your information or results to employers or health or insurance and companies.
And so this is something that people have already been talking about the idea that if you are at risk or you have something in your genetics that can put you at a higher risk for a disease than an insurance company will be less likely to ensure you and so there’s obviously some consequences of that, and if insurance companies could freely access this data that could be a dangerous thing for a lot of consumers who are actually trying to access insurance at a fair rate. So there are all these things to come and think of about something that seems… so fun, that you spit and then you get all these results of how many pieces that we need to think about.
A couple other things here is just how it works. Of course, you talk about a… Siva, is taken, it’s extracted the DNA, is extracting live an amplified others enough to be genotype it’s cut into small pieces applied to a glass Microchip and then that micro-Rahman has many microscopic beads applied to a surface each be as a pro on it that matches the DNA of the many variants. The companies test for the sample has a matched in the micro way. The sequences will hybridize with the big words are being together, letting research, now that this variant is present in the customer’s Juno by a fluorescent label, located on the probes so tens of thousands of variants are tested.
Of he 10th 30 million located in the entire genome compiled in a report applied to the consumer a lot, to them, not the variants associated with certain diseases, such a Parkinson. Celia had Alzheimer’s are present in their own genome on genome. And so, definitely a ton of information. There are some words that are too big for me and some diseases that I really don’t wanna hear about, but again, it is good to know that stuff and the hope is that as we get more accurate over time, here that these results can actually help us make better decisions for ourselves and for our health, and if we are at risk or something, we can make the ships in our lives to live a good life and be healthy and at least try to have the best life possible, if these diseases are gonna have an impact on it.
So I just wanted to pull up a couple of things. This was, this was a story that came out actually I believe. Yeah, July 26, which is yesterday. So Canada is using ancestry DNA… websites to help it deport people. So this is Vice News Vice News is honestly, maybe a little bit alarm is a clock bay and trying to drag some traffic sometimes, so hopefully, it’s not too much a fear-monger. But they’re talking about a Manistee, in problems with the law, who says he’s Liberian but the government is trying to prove he’s Nigerian. And so they’ve actually been reaching out through Ancestry dot com they’re using this and talking to different relatives, trying to determine where he came from where they need to basically deport him back because of the problems that he’s having with the law enforcement as well too. And so I has them back and forth. And this process has gone on for a long time and it’s really interesting to hear how this DNA testing has now become part of, obviously, law enforcement, but then this massive sort of immigration debate that’s going on in raging.
You know, more down in the stage right now but it’s a very paper topic here in Canada as well too, so obviously a ton about trying to collect the privacy but it’s pretty crazy to now see that law enforcement government the have the ability to access the stuff. And this is something that I think people need to worry about. And the intern of my… of, here made the joke of I… I hope, I hope you’re not gonna kill anyone next 100 years, but this is the question, right? If there’s a crime if it’s a petty crime or if you’re a suspect are they now able to dig deep into your DNA and your ancestry? And it really gets to that area of privacy where I think that worries a lot of people and rightfully so. And again, I think it comes back to, yes, being able to change a password, being let to get a new email, get a new credit card… debit card, but you can’t change the DNA sequence that you have in your body. And so there are definitely some ramifications of sending this. You can see all the companies that they’re talking about. Her family training. One does not work directly with Canadian law enforcement has no knowledge of Canadian law enforcements, using the platform, like all of these denials and just lack of just lack of pending attention by these companies. Of course, they’re gonna say this, even though it might not necessarily be true. And so we have to be worried, especially when we are in a mindset of This is capitalism. They are trying to drive as much profit as they possibly can in the amount of data, and how valuable that data is that these companies are collecting and collecting willfully from consumers is pretty damn crazy. And so, just a couple other things. I’m gonna post all these links below the video and podcast as I always do, but a couple of other pieces. He obviously tester is accurate as they claim to be, and we’re hearing a ton of stories about that. And you see different markers that they’re using a bunch of people who took the test a massive different ones and they really don’t even have that much to say about that.
They might tweak results to avoid “Isan people off. I don’t know about this, but they say Let’s stick that to point. So, if something unnecessary like People who are pissed off because they are at the Dutchess they expected to be, and they’re actually like modifying results. So all the power that they have, it’s almost similar to Another debate that’s going on about the voter pull boost right now and having backed or having access to that, but the back door opening into it. Actually, “bandmate changes to the data without really any ramifications or the consumers or obviously the voters knowing and so we’re seeing that on a pretty delicate, scale here with a really easy to mess up the test. Obviously, we talked about this, but, blood-seeming placing new U-S Ivan apparently there’s bunch of just a bunch of people who have sent in the kids haven’t got the results back and then they had to act as and do another test as well, too, because they promise with the sample or whatever, that screw racist. This is obviously one of the funny radiation. I’m privy with this gratification. If you are a racist person and then you get your DNA test, and you have the race that you were having against in your genes, I think you deserve that. I think that is hilarious. That doesn’t seem like a problem to me, but I’m sure there’s people who aren’t you happy about it? And I’m reading here. You can see an article that they might get a pest of dangerous person in their office and maybe if they believe that result is an accurate… we might have some problems there as well, too. Obviously an uncovered family secrets, there was one believe it.
I don’t want to put your as well too, but it was either a Japanese or a Korean person, and they are a Chinese person and they don’t want to mix they don’t wanna mix their races, so that’s a big piece of what they were doing at least for this person’s case. And then they found it… found out that in their heritage that there was a mixed race, and obviously that wasn’t great for their family and really showed an uncovered family. The secret that no one really wanted to know about. Definitely some shocking things that come to this. I’m open, again that this isn’t something I’m gonna see. And then, last of people like demand that they forged a result. So I don’t know what this was, but people want you to like they don’t want the results at the gay people are sometimes when people get face stone in the face, and they don’t have control over those facts. We’re seeing this right now a lot that it’s not necessarily the best thing for people’s mental health and stability sometimes, so I… we’re gonna see as more and more people use these. And I think again, it becomes one of those things where it’s that fear of missing out, it’s that thing that you wanna know as more and more people use it, it gets more trustworthy as long as there’s not a big Equifax breach, or something like that, which to me is only a ticking time bomb that something like that is gonna happen. People are gonna want the access to this and we’ve got no small amount of tech savvy hacking people who are very willing to consume problems even by doing this with about the troll hackers. And this is something I could easily see them going after and trying to release as well too. And so, I just had a couple of articles here. I don’t think I had too much else to talk about it and this today, but just something I think is really, really interesting.
I obviously got mine, I have you get that sort of Amazon Prime, you get that exciting, I get that exciting call-to-action from Amazon and you really want to spell… I think that we wanna know this information so much, but we have to think about the content. Mine of it as well too. And so most likely I will be moving forward and doing this will be spinning it and sending it in and I’ll probably do a little podcast after with the results. As long as they’re not too sad or devastating, but I just wanted to do what you guys think are… Have you done this in the past, are you using it, would you consider using it? How do you feel about the privacy concerns, the risks associated with it, is it worth it, is it not, honestly don’t know, I don’t know the answer to that question yet.
So I guess we’ll see when I get the results back and it’s gonna be an interesting experiment. Anyway, so I think that’s all I got today. Just wanted to talk about that and I think it’s something really, really odd to look at. And as we continue moving forward, we’re obviously, we’re hearing about Jane placing all this different kind of stuff and we have a possibility for an odd, an odd future here, and I think this might be… and driving to it some way. So that’s all for me. Thank you so much for watching for the listening, whatever you’re doing and have a great day, thank you.