Safe DNA database

So here’s something safe can do better than what we’ve got.
There are private companies that help you track your ancestors and relatives. You can send in a DNA sample and they’ll process it. You might be able to find a more or less distant relative, if that person has also submitted their DNA. Of course, governments like to get their hands on those databases and they’ve already made multiple requests. It would be great to put the data onto the safe network in a way that nobody can ever access all the data, but only what’s relevant to their own account.

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  • It’s a privacy nightmare. Why would you want to keep this data online in the first place? It’s asking for trouble.
  • You can’t even know whether your data was accessed
  • If (extremely unlikely) you by some chance realize your data was accessed, you have absolutely zero chance of finding out who did it and where (requirements if you want to sue). But more likely you wouldn’t know for sure (maybe you’d know because of new ads or different insurance premiums you start getting)
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In order to compare between users. People are doing it already, so the only question is how to make it safer, not whether it should be done because it is being done today.

The way I imagine it to work is that your data is uploaded to a safe account known to you only. Maybe you’d have to get the data sent to you by old school mail on a USB drive. Then you upload it onto safe. Then someone smart makes a program that can read only the DNA data to compare it. Any other data containing user information is not accessible. Shouldn’t structured data allow this? If people want to get in touch with each other, it would only work if both of them agree to it. They should be able to message each other while preserving their privacy. User information can only be given out with the explicit permission of the user.

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Well, first noone can know you are the guy who you say you are, so having access to a (stolen, copied) DNA file has no value without knowing the identity of the account holder and having a proof that data comes from the person who owns the SAFE account (DNA data may be otherwise valid, but not belong to the account owner; or it can belong to the account owner but be corrupt or otherwise tampered with).

So there are problems on multiple levels here. Without a proof of identity and proof of record issued by the entity that ddid the work, what is the value of such data?

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I think I might also point out that even if one DID prove that the DNA was in fact owned by the account holder one has just in fact tied a DNA sequence to their account. The Feds would love to get ahold of that.

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IDK what @janitor is talking about. This is a great idea. And Nobody can hack into it with SAFE.

Perfect for people who want to store their own DNA data somewhere safe forever

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I would summarize this idea like so: Proof of Nothing

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Nothing is unhackable and there’s nothing to stop people from LEAKING data from SAFE. If say you trusted someone with your medical DNA data and they decided to betray you and leak that information there’s nothing SAFE could do about that. So I’d contest SAFE is just prohibitively difficult to hack and one needs safeguards in place to deter leaking of information, also some common sense.

Of course, as long as humans are involved leaks can and will happen somewhere. The point is: DNA will become more important. Right now it’s for hobbyists that study their genealogy. Later it will be medical. People will get treatment personally adjusted to their DNA. More and more DNA data will be stored. The question is: Where? and How?

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Or conversely DNA could BECOME data storage. They’ve already discovered ways of storing digital data in strands of DNA. The amounts of information one can store are incredible to say the least.

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I think this will probably replace tapes as backup material. The retrieval of the data is somewhat tedious and takes time. I have no idea how much faster it could be done. It would certainly be cheaper to have a patient’s DNA stored digitally on a disk on a computer than to take the actual DNA and sequence it. That would also allow for working with the data.