Read a headline yesterday that siad"23 and me." is selling their info to a huge British pharmacy firm. Are insuracne companies next.. Those are my concerns.

I haven't but not because I'm against it- it just seems like a lot of work and I'm busy enough as it is. My friend has done it and it's time consuming. I guess I'm just not that interested. Maybe someday?

Well, regarding concerns, privacy and as some call, paranoia there are plenty of reports that the most financially lucrative information for hackers is medical and biological information on people. In fact, some hackers have ended up changing medical records of some people leading to disastrous results. You can find these reports in a simple search.

I think privacy concerns on all sensitive data is always part of a discussion that balances the good of sharing information with how that information will be used.

I agree with Darcy that providing any private data is a balancing act--we want the ease of being able to have one doc see the tests, x-rays,etc done by another doc without us driving all over to gather things and want it to be pretty instant. but we don't want just anyone to access the info either. We want our computer to notify us when our favorite on-line fabric store has a super sale, but we don't want to inundated with ads either. On FB we want to get info from all our family & friends, look up pages that interest us--but not get the junk that might interest all those other people!

One concern I have is the use of the voice activated home computers (i.e. Alexa, Echo, etc)--basically it's turned on all the time unless you unplug it (and take out batteries if it has a backup) and it's listening to everything you say and storing that data in order to anticipate what you do/want. My son is a low voltage tech (i.e. fiber optic) and says the dang things are so easy to "hack" that he won't have one in his house. My SIL loves her's--uses to ask all sorts of stuff. Again--a balance.

My husband has a german last name but my daughter was mostly english and irish from his side, no german, but if you look at the history germans invaded england long long ago so maybe the german lines dwindled down after many years in england. I found mine vety intriguing, told my daughter we werenasian to learn i have vietnamese in me snd also interesting to see what nationalities my daughter got from me. She got my portuguese but no norwegian or vietnamese genes in her, she got some of my african nations but not all, very surprising

and they will not be the only pharmaceutical company to sell their DNA data base. Governments, etc will buy them too....if they have not already. Am I paranoid... no..just realistic. And people are volunteering their info...paying to do so too!

IF the government or big pharma asked you to donate your DNA fOR FREE in exchange for your DNA report ...would you?

One thing I've thought about is that if we had a national DNA bank they may find killers and exonerate innocent people this way. I'm all for it.

do all the siblings with the same parents have identical "ethnic" dna?

No we don't. Two of my siblings have also had their DNA done and we all have different "mixes". The easiest way I explain it is, we get 50% of our DNA from each parent. However, the 50% I get, is a different 50% mix, than my siblings got. We all were somewhat similar, in that Dad is English and Irish, and Mom is French Canadian. The two of us that most resemble Dad (Tall, fair hair and skin)were very similar. The one who resembles Mom (Short, dark hair and skin) was different. I just find the whole process fascinating

So there's a couple of different ways to look at this. The biggest question is why are they buying DNA databases? What could a pharmaceutical company possibly want with data that reveals people's genetic makeup? Probably because they can use it to develop much better medications and vaccines, targeted to our specific genetics.

I have long believed that the medical industry tends to lump all humans together, but what treatment works for one person does not mean it works for all. Also, diseases and conditions that affect one race more than the others could benefit from information gathered via DNA databases. Sickle cell disease, for example, disproportionately affects African-Americans. And there is growing new evidence that diabetes causes obesity, not that obesity causes diabetes, which is the current model of thinking. Imagine if DNA information could help researchers solve that epidemic. I have high hopes; diabetes runs in my husband's family and I worry about my sons. <3