Here’s What You Need to Know Before You Buy a DNA Testing Kit

It ’s awful how much selective information there is shroud in one tiny globule of spit .

In 2003,scientists announcedthat they had , after more than a decade , complete sequencing * the human genome . In 2018 , you may spit in a test tube and , for thesame priceas a twain of Apple Air Pods , find out a legion of engrossing info about your ancestry and wellness .

But there are things you should sleep with before you spit : Namely that you ’re you ’re hand over access to extremely sensitive selective information about things including yourhealth , personality , andfamily story . It ’s all there in thefine printif you gravel to read it : Testing companies can claim rights to your hereditary information , allow third parties to get at it , and simply by virtue of possess it make your DNA vulnerable to drudge . ( Gizmodo has an thoroughgoing summing up of thosepotential risk here . )

This is n’t because DNA testing company like AncestryDNA or 23andMe are doing anything particularly fishy . Sharing sensitive personal information is inherently risky . And the truth is , we likely do n’t even fully understand what some of those risks are . It ’s potential you could one day face up employment or insurance discrimination , or even social stain , establish on your genes .

We ’re gauge you might not have thought about all this before you becameone of the millionsof people queer to get hold out what their DNA might say about them . And , as I explored in a recent characteristic , the truth of the selective information you get back from these companies isdubious . So we ’ll depart you with one important patch of advice : Think before you spit !