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Privacy and DNA

A Harvard professor has re-identified the names of more than 40% of a sample of anonymous participants in a high-profile DNA study, highlighting the dangers that ever greater amounts of personal data available in the Internet era could unravel personal secrets.

Read the whole story here.  Also, why not check out how unique your birthdate, zip code, and gender are by going here. (I am uniquely identifiable by my birthdate, gender, and zip code.  And you probably are too.)

Cheers.

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One response to “Privacy and DNA”

  1. chrisbeeleyimh Avatar
    chrisbeeleyimh

    Reblogged this on chrisbeeleyimh and commented:
    Interesting story, but it’s worth noting that participants were identified from postcode, date of birth, and gender, whereas a useful open dataset would include only region, age, and gender. So I’m a 34 year old man from Nottingham. If that’s all you had, lots of luck identifying me.

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