12 votes

Is there a way to do a DNA test anonymously?

Not sure if this is the right spot, but the topic says it. I'd like to get my DNA checked out, but I don't want it connected to my name and all that. Is this actually possible? Am I overreacting?

I'm not even sure what I look to gain from the testing, but I figured I'd look into it. If I can do it safely and privately, I'm game. If not, no loss.

Any thoughts?

7 comments

  1. [2]
    thereticent
    Link
    My first thought is that your DNA (encoded in a high resolution) is itself a unique identifier attached only to you. You expose yourself to being found by blood relatives however distant, as well...

    My first thought is that your DNA (encoded in a high resolution) is itself a unique identifier attached only to you. You expose yourself to being found by blood relatives however distant, as well as swept into criminal investigations that involve blood relatives (however distant).

    6 votes
    1. cmccabe
      Link Parent
      What thereticent said. So I would add a stipulation to your request and maybe that can help someone answer you: is there an anonymous DNA testing service that also does not store your genetic...

      What thereticent said. So I would add a stipulation to your request and maybe that can help someone answer you: is there an anonymous DNA testing service that also does not store your genetic data, ensuring that it is never available to others?

      2 votes
  2. [2]
    Greg
    Link
    It seems totally reasonable to be wary - it's a comparatively new field that generates data that can be held indefinitely and re-analysed later as additional techniques are developed, potentially...

    It seems totally reasonable to be wary - it's a comparatively new field that generates data that can be held indefinitely and re-analysed later as additional techniques are developed, potentially without consent. The privacy laws around it are new and relatively untested, there are few to no discrimination protections yet, and it increases your chances of crossing paths with law enforcement regardless of any wrongdoing on your part.

    I'm not going to judge people who still choose to go ahead, that's very much a personal choice based on how much those factors concern you, but making an educated call on what you're comfortable with seems the absolute opposite of overreacting!

    I did a bit of looking around the same question myself a while back. My bar for judging a company that's actually serious about privacy would be a similar attitude to Proton or Mullvad: "we can't disclose what we don't know, so we encrypt everything we can in a way that even we can't access, and would actively prefer it if you don't tell us who you are". I did find one company that claims this is "coming soon", but the site raises several red flags for me. In an ideal world the only point of trust required would be an audit ensuring that the sequencing machine itself immediately encrypts the output with your public key and does not store or expose the raw data anywhere, and that the sample is then immediately destroyed.

    Depending on your personal risk tolerance, there's nothing (other than presumably the site T&Cs, depending on how much you care about that) to stop you from buying a mainstream test with cash or a prepaid card and submitting it under a pseudonym. The question then becomes how worried are you about the data being linked back to you anyway by correlating it with relatives' data and/or other factors?

    3 votes
    1. tomf
      Link Parent
      I think I'll hold off. It just seems sketchy to give it over. I'm not concerned about long lost family or anything, however. The rest of my family has done this stuff. They actually found a lot of...

      I think I'll hold off. It just seems sketchy to give it over. I'm not concerned about long lost family or anything, however. The rest of my family has done this stuff. They actually found a lot of relatives they didn't know about -- either for distance or a 'this guy has a second family eight blocks away' thing. :)

      That Nebula site seems great if true.

      2 votes
  3. [3]
    JXM
    Link
    One big problem is that DNA, by its very nature, is uniquely identifiable information. By definition it can't be anonymous. Even if you found the DNA testing version of a no logs VPN and paid via...

    One big problem is that DNA, by its very nature, is uniquely identifiable information. By definition it can't be anonymous.

    Even if you found the DNA testing version of a no logs VPN and paid via cash, you're still trusting that they are telling the truth.

    Any testing you get done based on promises of anonymization now will likely be held in perpetuity. So in 5 or 10 years, if the company that did the test gets bought or changes their mind and adds your results to a database, you're out of luck.

    (Re-reading this comment it comes off as a bit tinfoil hat, but that's kind of what OP is asking for. I think DNA tests are great and the fact that so many decades old cold cases have been solved via genetic databases is fantastic. But people should definitely know what they are signing up for when they get a DNA test done.)

    3 votes
    1. cmccabe
      Link Parent
      I don't think it's tinfoil hatty at all. In fact, it's a pretty reasonable posture given what we know about the pace of development in DNA analysis, the trustworthiness of corporations, and the...

      I don't think it's tinfoil hatty at all. In fact, it's a pretty reasonable posture given what we know about the pace of development in DNA analysis, the trustworthiness of corporations, and the reliability of government regulation over corporations. And that even leaves out the known IT security risks of computer systems.

      1 vote
    2. tomf
      Link Parent
      honestly, I don't think it sounds tinfoil hat at all. I don't want to end up in a Minority Report situation where I'm buying someone else's eyeballs. :)

      honestly, I don't think it sounds tinfoil hat at all. I don't want to end up in a Minority Report situation where I'm buying someone else's eyeballs. :)