genomeboy.com

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Large amounts of aggregate human DNA data that the National Institutes of Health and other groups made open to researchers around the world is being locked up from public view due to privacy concerns that arose this week when a new forensic DNA method was announced that could conceivably leave people vulnerable to identification.

So that’s it? After all the elaborate mechanisms put in place for investigator applications, data submission, data access, data monitoring, data oversight, and governance…now we just pull the plug on sharing of GWAS data because it can’t be protected?

Privacy is changing rapidly and in ways we can barely comprehend. Will we live our lives differently, fearing that our everyday social contacts are going to wind up in some great database? How will the world change when group photos snapped at parties all turn into misleading edges in that permanent, all-encompassing social graph? Can society limit the abuse of personal information without resorting to Internet censorship that would violate the First Amendment?

Yes, already happening, and no.

(hat tip)