• Stopthatgirl7
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    284 months ago

    I’ve got to admit, I’ve wanted to do one of those tests just because my family is such a mix of “lol we don’t know.” Like, no really, what IS my maternal grandma? She does not look like the rest of her family and had a different family name from her siblings. And ok really, where DID my paternal great-grandmother who lied about her race so she could marry my great-grandfather back when “miscegenation” was illegal, come from? And WAS that great-grandpa biracial himself?

    There’s a reason I call myself an ethnic Rorschach test, and I’d love to know why it is I am. But the rest of my family is against the idea of finding out because “it doesn’t matter” plus who knows how just data might be used one day.

    • @Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      53 months ago

      the test isnt particularly meaningful. As I understand it they just test a handful of genes that they suspect were less varied in the past. As a result if you get tested through all the services that offer gene testing you will get different numbers for each one.

      • Stopthatgirl7
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        33 months ago

        That’s the other big reason I’m hesitant - different tests can give totally different results, so who knows what’s “right”?

    • Sibbo
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      64 months ago

      You can just do the test in secret, I guess. Just don’t tell anyone. But yeah, costs money of course.

  • @bblkargonaut@lemmy.world
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    163 months ago

    I haven’t found an article yet that can actually articulate the problem with 23 and me right now, and actually did research into it or even read the terms and service. The problem with 23 and me is that they are not maximizing the share holder value of the data they are sitting on. The CEO wants to keep the company in line with the principals they were founded on which is to protect the privacy and data of their customers, while using opt in studies to build data sets that can be studied or sold.

    Investors want to enshittify the company, and have been organizing a campaign against to company to try to drive it into liquidation to buy the data, even though the company is profitable. I wouldn’t be surprised is they are funding these weekly omfg 23 and me bad articles.

    • @monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world
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      53 months ago

      That juicy data is going to get bought up by the health insurance industry. I would be surprised if they aren’t part of the push to force them to sell the data.

  • @RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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    423 months ago

    I refuse to do it because I’m a twin. We both agree that it’s shitty if one of us does it because then the other is forced into it basically, being identical.

    Also our dad was a piece of cheating shit so we don’t ever want to know about that possibility.

    • @tpyo@lemmy.world
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      03 months ago

      That would indicate your mom cheated as well? Not sure exactly what your dad cheating has to do with your DNA. Wouldn’t it be better to find out he wasn’t your dad if he was so shitty?

      • @RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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        283 months ago

        We do not want to find my father’s illegitimate children. He was our father, as our mother never cheated.

        • @tpyo@lemmy.world
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          23 months ago

          I’m very sorry I didn’t think of this context. I wasn’t being daft intentionally, it just didn’t occur to me when I was trying to figure out the situation

          I can understand now. Thank you for sharing and gently explaining the situation

          (I’m also very, very sorry to have implied your mother had cheated in that scenario. I did not mean to cast shade on her character)

          • @RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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            23 months ago

            You are much more polite than the person who was much more condescending about my mother. It’s fine.

            I know for facts my mother never cheated. Mother is at an age I have increasing access to medical records of previous…attempts at children. Which lines up entirely with things my father talked about, and how delighted they were when we were born. Also, my father, for his faults, absolutely could spot another cheater at 50 paces and knew my mother did not.

            Also she was like. The only person at home, working in education with long hours and then taking care of us, so if she did cheat, like. Damn, she was really finding the time somehow taking care of terrible twins.

        • @TheFogan@programming.dev
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          -73 months ago

          our mother never cheated.

          That you know of, or care to know of. To be fair that’s a better reason to not do it. You know your dad is a piece of shit apparently, your mom you have a good image of, and no benefit to the image being tarnished after it matters.

          • tb_
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            43 months ago

            That you know of, or care to know of.

            Yes, but also who cares. No need to point out that “technically there’s always a chance” because you can do that for basically anything.

          • @modus@lemmy.world
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            33 months ago

            But what if they’re totally cool people who own a bar in Tahoe or something? You’d be missing out on the fun.

            • Todd Bonzalez
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              43 months ago

              Yeah, but what if they’re right wing weirdos obsessed with genealogy and they reach out to you first because they want to save you or something?

        • @tpyo@lemmy.world
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          13 months ago

          Thank you; I’m sorry I missed that broader context. I try to think critically about what I read and sometimes I struggle with widening my scope of thinking

          • @irreticent@lemmy.world
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            43 months ago

            If you choose to opt in and participate in DNA Relatives, other customers that have also elected to participate in this feature will be able to view the following information about you:

            Your DNA Relatives display name

            How recently you logged into your account

            Your relationship labels (masculine, feminine, neutral)

            Your predicted relationship and percentage of DNA shared with your matches

            Your location (optional)

            Ancestor birth locations and family names (optional)

            Your profile picture (optional)

            Your birth year (optional)

            A link to your Family Tree (optional)

            Anything you have added to the “Introduce yourself!” Section (optional)

    • @TheFogan@programming.dev
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      83 months ago

      I mean obviously it would just discover that your mom was also a cheater?

      Well I mean beyond the possibility of half siblings.

    • @ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      I think of myself as someone who always wants to know, I want to know the truth, I don’t like not knowing things. Plus, it could help finding out about genetic conditions and things to be on the lookout for, which can definitely be valuable.

      I’d still never do one of these tests because of the privacy concerns and because I don’t trust companies with something like this, especially since I have seen so many times where companies have a lax attitude or lax policies or both about security.

      • @Doxatek@mander.xyz
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        133 months ago

        Yeah companies don’t care. McDonald’s sold my fingerprint data. I used it to clock in and out for work. I got like a 50 dollar settlement or something so that was nice <3 ty Ronald

          • @Doxatek@mander.xyz
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            33 months ago

            So sorry. I’m sure with lots of hard work, nepotism and education you too may some day be able to work at a McDonald’s of your own and get your prints stolen. Keep that head up champ and pull up hard on those boot straps! :)

  • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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    673 months ago

    Oh, don’t worry. If you hadn’t given it to them, one or ten of your fucking rellies did anyway and had no clue of the implications either.

        • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          33 months ago

          I love how they just smash “-ies” onto any word. I started using “sunnies” for sunglasses after hanging out with a few aussies.

        • @toynbee@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Maybe.

          I’m only familiar with the term “BSc” from Red Dwarf, wherein it’s eventually revealed to mean “bronze swimming certificate”; however, from the context of the joke in the novel (and I think the show, don’t remember for sure), I assume it has some more impressive meaning in other uses.

          Given the origins of that series, I was guessing British, but that doesn’t limit it much. My cultural ignorance is preventing me from forming a meaningful theory.

          edit: I’m sorry, I thought this was a response to another comment I made, making my response 100% irrelevant. Please feel free to disregard.

          edit 2: Though I guess the last line of my unedited comment still applies.

            • @toynbee@lemmy.world
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              33 months ago

              Thank you for the information!

              Also, I infer from your response that you also remember that part of Red Dwarf, which is awesome.

  • Th4tGuyII
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    194 months ago

    Honestly I’ve never gotten the desire to do one of these things. You give away arguably the most uniquely valuable and private part of yourself to this company (or companies like it) to do god knows what with in exchange for these results that are (IMO) ultimately just unnecessary trivia about yourself.

  • @Grunt4019@lemm.ee
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    43 months ago

    On this topic, I did ancestrydna long before I got concerned with my data and privacy. I have since deleted my data and had them destroy my physical sample as well (which took them a long time). But I wonder if the damage is done and even though they say they deleted and destroyed the sample how can I know for sure? Etc

    • @daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      73 months ago

      I don’t know James Smith, from Phoenix, Arizona. Social security number 523-098-1322. Is your data safe?

      Imagine how you’d freak out if I, by change, got it right.

      • Steve Dice
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        73 months ago

        What the hell?! You got mine right!

        Not really, but it would have been cool. Also, socials are 9 digits in the US.

  • @antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    203 months ago

    Recreational DNA testing eventually led to discovering that I had never before met my biological father. Mom got it wrong. I met him and his family this summer finally. I am slightly irritated that my last name (and my child’s) is now kind of meaningless, and it’s too much of a hassle to change it.

  • Codex
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    673 months ago

    I had in some ways the opposite 23&Me experience and goals. My parents told me growing up that I had some small native ancestry. This is actually a common myth many Americans have either been told or somehow deluded themselves into believing.

    So I did the DNA testing (which I now regret from all the obvious enshittification and privacy reasons) to prove that my ancestry was boring and predictable. Which it was, no indigenous ancestry, just the expected European countries that my great grandparents came from.

    They also do a lot of nice health screening things and I think that’s probably the much more valuable aspect of it. It really is very American that people are so much more concerned with what DNA says about one’s race or ethnicity than about their health and wellbeing.

  • richmondez
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    114 months ago

    This only tells you about your very recent ancestry, but go back enough generations are you are descended from everyone alive at the time who still has living decendants, just like everyone else.

  • @Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I still find it funny people think these tests mean anything. “you have these 7/9 genes in common with Jasper Brittania and are therefore 77% british”

    • @Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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      53 months ago

      Stories tend to disappear with the passing away of living memory. These tests are a hope to revive a story of where we came from. It doesn’t, obviously, but I can’t blame people for want.

  • @Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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    434 months ago

    There’s something hilarious about the author’s disappointment to find out they’re British, and nothing else.

    Can’t say I blame them though.

    • @Broken@lemmy.ml
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      13 months ago

      I don’t really subscribe to the whole race thing. Its a culture thing.

      And even more important is the food. Can you cook me a traditional xyz meal? Delicious. I love that you’re xyz.

      That’s just another reason to be disappointed to find out that you’re British.

    • Stopthatgirl7
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      184 months ago

      I read the headline and went, “…I mean, what were you expecting?”

    • @ratel@mander.xyz
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      153 months ago

      Title is misleading, FTA:

      Confirmation that I am 63% British and Irish, 17% Danish and otherwise “broadly north-western European”. I felt a resounding ambivalence about the results, including some disappointment that I had not discovered a newfound heritage – a piece of information that would give my identity new dimension.

      But also:

      My father’s side of the family is meticulous about tracking our ancestry, with records that hold the name of the exact small village in Ireland our ancestors hail from.

      Those results often can’t narrow down to exact countries so it says he’s 63% British and Irish. Seeing as his fathers family has records of being from a small Irish town it’s likely he’s more Irish that British, not that it means anything if you’re actually American anyway.