[ExI] 23andme again

[Mike Dougherty]

On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 8:33 PM, spike <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> I really had no justification to go off Googling like some kind of
> Neanderthal cyber stalker.  I put myself in this mess, so really it is my
> damn fault.  If her mother wouldn’t tell her own daughter, who the hell am I
> to come along and countermand that decision?  I don’t know these people,
> have very little knowledge of our apparent common ancestor.  This bio-father
> is actually a third cousin once removed from me, and his bio-offspring are
> my fourth cousins.  I didn’t get their blessing in wedging my nose in their
> business.  The potential for harm is great, and my vague intuition is that
> the potential harm may outweigh the benefits.

How long does privacy last after you're dead?  What have we learned
about Monroe & Kennedy?  Should we have?  Has the guy from 1855
recorded any desire to remain unfound?  Is this the beginnings of
digital resurrection?  Perhaps we don't have a completely accurate
picture of this man's character, but thanks to genetics clues we have
a few glimpses into some of his ... behavior.

Also, you used publicly available tools to coalesce these details into
a coherent picture.  Whether you consider yourself an extension of
those tools in the service of this woman, she made a request (however
indirectly) and your knowledge/skills brought forth this information.
If you make this woman wait 5 years for the tools you used to become
automated, all you have done is wasted 5 of her years.  If some joker
charges her to use those automated tools, you've cost her the time AND
the money.

I see this as an example of transparency and freedom of information.
You gathered this information because it is your hobby and you were
curious enough to check it out.  If there was a business/contractual
obligation beforehand, I'd hope the terms of that contract were
clearly established.  You're sharing information in-kind with someone
who has contacted you through/because of a genetic assay.  You are
neither selling a service nor profiting from this exchange of
information.

If this kind of sleuthing and filling in the missing information isn't
one of the immediate useful purposes of 23andMe, then what IS it for?
Oh right, I already asked that question.  This might just be part of
the ongoing answer.  :)