Prognosis
‘Everyone Will Be Potentially Identifiable’: Booming DNA Testing Means No Identity Is Hidden on the Web
- Study finds 60% chance of family links to growing pool of data
- Soon ‘everyone will be potentially identifiable,’ says author
A 23andMe Inc. DNA genetic testing kit.
Photographer: Cayce Clifford/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Consumer DNA testing -- and the mountain of data it has generated -- has become pervasive enough that it’s possible to identify about six of every 10 people in the U.S. who are of European descent, even if they’ve never given a sample.
According to a study published on Thursday in the journal Science, Americans of European extraction are more likely than not to have close genetic ties with someone who has done a consumer DNA test through a company like 23andMe Inc. or Ancestry.com Inc., even if they’ve never shipped the companies a sample of their DNA.