{"id":289,"date":"2026-04-29T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/?p=289"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:58:07","slug":"is-direct-to-consumer-dna-testing-worth-the-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/2026\/04\/29\/is-direct-to-consumer-dna-testing-worth-the-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Is direct-to-consumer DNA testing worth the risk?"},"content":{"rendered":"I think that for now, the lifelong security risks outweigh the medical benefits. Since your DNA is permanent and can&#8217;t be changed, I think it is more important to make sure that your DNA is safe than to use it medically. Unless we come up with some way for the DNA not to be tracked, or they make some amazing medical breakthrough and don&#8217;t store the DNA, then I think it will be safe. I think the main priority of medical research should be to make sure cybersecurity is the most important part. Also, the chance that  I think companies saying you&#8217;re not fit for a role because of your genetic makeup makes no sense. The genetic discrimination is something that already happens and was even worse in the past. We discriminated against black people. It also makes no sense to discriminate against DNA since that&#8217;s not the only thing that matters when it comes to working. There are many people who could have great DNA but have the worst mindset ever. I think the human factor is now even more of a way for hackers to break into a corporate network. The way passwords are now is that people usually make them about something important to them. The chance that DNA will be the key to anything in the world makes it a huge issue and the easiest way for people to break into things. Meaning we might need more steps in place to secure things than a password, or 2-factor authentication.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think that for now, the lifelong security risks outweigh the medical benefits. Since your DNA is permanent and can&#8217;t be changed, I think it is more important to make sure that your DNA is safe than to use it medically. Unless we come up with some way for the DNA not to be tracked,&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/2026\/04\/29\/is-direct-to-consumer-dna-testing-worth-the-risk\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":32009,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}