As announced today in Technology Review the trend of social networks now applies in the fields of genetic science. A new service is currently online, where you can compare your DNA with that of family and friends.

We are witnessing a boom in the field of social networks, which now expands to medical fields, where privacy is of utmost importance. My concern is not if these services actually protect their customers, but if customers really realize where they are getting into.

23andMe

The service is called 23andMe and is

a web-based service that helps you read and understand your DNA. After providing a saliva sample using an at-home kit, you can use our interactive tools to shed new light on your distant ancestors, your close family and most of all, yourself.

All they require from you is a sample of your spit and 999$. Then, they will gather all sorts of medical and genetical information and send you a thorough analysis. Purpose of this social network is not only to answer the question “where do I come from?” but also “how do I compare to other people?” Apart from that, as Technology Review notes

23andMe offers information about an individual’s disease risk. But it has also opted to emphasize more entertaining approaches to personal genomics, including using colorful visualization tools to look at a subject’s ancestry and compare it with that of celebrities from Jesse James to Benjamin Franklin and Bono. Now, to capitalize on the boom in social networking, the company will launch a genome-sharing tool that allows people to compare their genome with those of family members, friends, and even strangers who have offered up their DNA data.

It all sounds fun, but a person’s medical history is very thin ice and I wonder if potential users come to realize that.

23andMe’s Privacy Statement

The Privacy Statement of 23andMe is very clear and covers several issues to protect its users.

• they can choose if they want to share their information,
• the information collected are non-personal used for research and never released outside the company without the user’s consent
• users can delete their account anytime, which is also deleted from the company’s database.

It is obvious, that 23andMe takes privacy very seriously - and it should. Users are protected in multiple levels and given a variety of choices.

But one of the main reasons to join 23andMe is the community driven system. Users will likely want to compare information, they will want to see if they have the same genes as Gandhi; and that’s where the real privacy issues emerge.

Privacy in Social Networks; more important than ever

Until now, participators in most social networks were sharing information, of minimal importance: their favourite links, their hobbies, their bio or the number of their friends. Of course these are also subjects, that should be carefully shared, but no big harm can be done.

But with services like 23andMe, we are seeing a transformation in social networks and the privacy issues, that emerge.

Social networking is mostly fun and play, but when it comes to sharing information of your own DNA, things become much more serious. I’m not going to list the problems of publicly showing your medical history/future, these are obvious.

But users of social networks, should start thinking with extreme caution, which networks they should join. The fun and joy remains in social networking, but the hazards seem to increase.

Would you share information about your genealogical tree and your medical history with the wide public of the social web?