A DOCUMENT shredder is a good investment for anyone worried about identity theft. Why make it easy for someone to grab your credit card and bank account numbers from discarded statements?
The information contained in the DNA that we all leave lying around on items such as coffee cups and discarded tissues is just as sensitive, but there is no equivalent of a document shredder for genetic detritus. This is what makes the relative ease with which we hijacked commercial services to obtain genome scans from a reporter鈥檚 鈥渁bandoned鈥� DNA so disturbing (see 鈥淗ow my genome was hacked鈥�).
What should be done to shield our genes from prying eyes? Procedures used by some companies can be abused by a determined person and extra steps could prevent this, either by putting the submitted samples under greater scrutiny, or using more checks to verify who the companies are dealing with. Ultimately, though, preserving genetic privacy will require new laws, and the political resolve to push them through.
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Many countries have been slow to respond to the challenges posed by technological advances in genetics. Last year, for instance, the US Congress passed the to great fanfare. Conveniently forgotten was the fact that concerned members of Congress had been trying to pass such a law for 13 years.
Indeed, GINA reads like a law fashioned for a previous decade. When its provisions come into effect in the coming months, the law will prevent employers and health insurers from discriminating on the basis of DNA tests that suggest future health problems. Its drafting reflected a situation in which individual tests for particular genetic mutations were ordered by doctors. Against this background, controlling the use of test results by organisations with the most obvious power to discriminate was a good move.
Those who drafted GINA did not envision a world in which genome scans can be ordered over the internet for a few hundred dollars. In deciding how to protect our privacy, lawmakers should assume that complete sequencing of our 鈥渁bandoned鈥� DNA will soon be cheap. They must identify key points at which the law can be tightened without putting a brake on legitimate genetic research and valuable clinical testing.
鈥淟awmakers did not envision genome scans being available over the internet for a few hundred dollars鈥�
As a start, we suggest looking at the legality of extracting and analysing DNA left on everyday items such as coffee cups. This option needs to be available to the police and to defence lawyers. The rest of us do not need to behave as if we鈥檙e living in an episode of CSI.