There's a simple anonymity hack, unless of course your relatives "out" you. I bought my 23andme kit from Amazon, then registered on 23andme website with a fake name. I have my results, but as far as 23andme are concerned I'm John Smith.
I was going to do this, but someone said that 23andme also takes a survey of family history, health, and demographic information—which is then used for actual research. I don't want to pollute data used for scientific research!
How recently did you do this, and was there any information collection like that?
I did this a few months ago, but I'm pretty sure the survey you mentioned is optional, at least I don't remember doing it, so you don't necessarily have to "pollute data".
And does the kit have any sort of identifier with it? If so, I was considering some sort of 23andme kit remixing service, where people pool funds to buy a bunch of kits, and then randomly select a kit from the shipment. :-)
Just get it from Amazon, the packaging doesn't have any unique identifiers like serial number, so if you register with fake name/email on 23andme - you're totally anonymous.
By choosing to not get a DNA test at all due to privacy concerns, didn't you also pollute the data, albeit in a different way? 23andme data will vastly under-represent people with strong privacy concerns which might have a future impact, especially if scientists using this data forget to take it into account.
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