ANNE WOJCICKI above sitting next to Facebook founder & CEO who now owns youtube.
Susan and Anne Wojcicki are sisters. Susan, 50, is the CEO of YouTube and has long worked for Google. Anne, 45, co-founded and serves as CEO of the genetic testing website 23andMe. Anne married Sergey Brin, a Google co founder, with whom she has kids. But the two split in 2013 (which means that, yes, her sister works under her ex).
Gene testing promises a revolution in healthcare. With just a few swabs of saliva, diagnostics can provide an unprecedented look into a person’s family history and potential health risks. Within a decade, global sales of genetic tests are expected to hit $10 billion. Direct-to-consumer companies such as 23andMe and Genos have proven particularly popular, with tens of thousands of people purchasing at-home testing kits every year.
But the industry’s rapid growth rests on a dangerous delusion: that genetic data is kept private. Most people assume this sensitive information simply sits in a secure database, protected from hacks and misuse.
Is your DNA genetic testing information SAFE?
Far from it. Genetic-testing companies cannot guarantee privacy. And many are actively selling user data to outside parties.
The problem starts with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a 1996 federal law that allows medical companies to share and sell patient data if it has been “anonymized,” or scrubbed of any obvious identifying characteristics.
For instance, 23andMe has sold access to its database to at least 13 outside pharmaceutical firms. One buyer, Genentech, ponied up a cool $10 million for the genetic profiles of people suffering from Parkinson’s. AncestryDNA, another popular personal genetics company, recently announced a lucrative data-sharing partnership with the biotech company Calico.
Customers are wrong to think their information is safely locked away. It’s not; it’s getting sold far and wide. READ MORE…
IS THE GOVERNMENT INVOLVED?
Is the government involved, as the relationship between DARPA and Facebook shows. The DARPA program, LifeLog, closed down on the very day that FaceBook began – February 4, 2004. Then there is the relationship to Internet collection sites, like Google and YouTube. They are not just business partners, they are family and marital partners! How close is close!
Apparently DARPA transferred its “LifeLog” project mission to collect DNA on everyone to Facebook in 2004
REGINA DUGAN 19th Director of DARPA
Worked for: Facebook, Google, RedXDefense, NASA
VLA COMMENT: It is very important to get a DNA test prior to be prescribed drugs. Many individuals do not have the ability (via genetics) to metabolize specific drugs. These individuals are, because they are not being tested, are commonly given contraindicated drugs which render them more and more psychotic, suicidal and homicidal with heinous ideations, beyond the comprehension of normal human beings. However, you might ask your doctor if the company that is doing the testing will keep you information safe including privacy of not redacting you name and selling the DNA. Best it would be if, AS IT SHOULD BE, that genetic testing be covered by HIPPAA law.
