Diggin’ that DNA Data

The most private of our personal data and its economic value. The MadHATTERs Editorial, 12 August 2020

MadHATTERs Weekly
Like what you read? Subscribe here.

Alarm bells rang last week when Blackstone announced its acquisition of Ancestry.com. Lots of speculation about why the private equity giant wants to sink good money — USD4.7 billion — into a business that’s more Long Lost Family than profit-maximisation growth, especially given how saturated the consumer DNA testing market is.

Blackstone’s no doubt eyeing Ancestry’s DNA database of over 18 million people, even though it insists it won’t have access to it. But we’ve heard that one before. Blackstone’s not paying the equivalent of USD250 per person for nothing. Our genetic code has immense value beyond unearthing family history, whether as a powerful forensic tool to help solve crime or as part of new drug-discovering pharma and medical research.

But this most private of our personal data can also be badly misused: by governments tracking and surveilling immigrants, by insurers using predictions of genetic illnesses to reject policy applications. And safe to say you’d rather find out about that long-lost sibling yourself than from a stranger using hacked data as blackmail. Little surprise the recent data breach exposing GEDmatch’s 1 million user database got many het up about the possibility of more hacks.

Privacy advocates have long questioned the wisdom of handing our DNA data to commercial firms, given the lack of adequate privacy laws that protect genetic data. And the story of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells is a cautionary tale of how easily institutions can harvest something so personal without consent, commercialise and monetise its potential without benefiting its original source.

Ultimately, whatever Blackstone intends to do with Ancestry.com and its DNA database must involve the consent of those who contributed to it, and with respect for their rights to its value, economic or otherwise.

MadHATTERs is a weekly newsletter covering technology, personal data, and the Internet. Its perspective championing decentralised personal data is led by Dataswift with the Hub of All Things (HAT) technology. If you like what you read, subscribe to receive MadHATTERs in your inbox. Find out more about the HAT at www.hubofallthings.com