(ACHSRE) Gabriel Dudlicek, Phillip Durgin, Angela Ferro, Adam Goldsmith
Today, the burgeoning fields of genetics and biometrics are continuously being woven into contemporary life, often times without the general population even noticing. This data can have many practical and beneficial purposes, such as identification, security, and medical research. However, concerns about what entities have access to this information and how they use it has led many to believe these practices are an invasion of personal privacy. By amassing gigantic quantities of data and enumerating the population, you create a need for categorization; whether it be by race, sex, socioeconomic status, or creed. The unintended effect of this enumeration is allowing “life and its mechanisms” to enter “the realm of explicit calculation” (Hacking 279), where the corporations that collect this personal information have the power to categorize individuals into groups. These groups can then be segregated and controlled; held hostage by their own identities. Although modern technology has revealed the potential benefits from the genetic and biometric fields, the pitfalls of such analysis lies in the security and privacy of personal information and the potential for discriminatory applications with that data.
Genetic testing advertises personalized knowledge of your “health, traits and ancestry” (23andMe), but that is not all your DNA is used for. In The Privacy Delusions of Genetic Testing, the author Peter Pitts explains how some genetic testing companies, including 23andMe and AncestryDNA, sell customers’ private information. For instance, AncestryDNA’s contract gives them a “perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, transferable license to use your DNA,” (Pitts) allowing them to share both family history and DNA information with other companies or researchers. This information is often used with good intentions; one company is using the data for genetic research of Parkinson’s. However, as Ian Hacking points out when talking about Europe in the 1820-1840 period, countries used statistics to push agendas: “Disease, madness… created a morbid and fearful fascination for numbers upon which the bureaucracies fed” (Hacking 287).” Even if bureaucracies or companies have good intentions, they cannot mask the fact that personal genetic information is being sold to private companies without true protection for the privacy of customers. 23andMe and others insist that this data is submitted anonymously, however as Pitts points out, this data can be easily be de-anonymized, allowing it to be linked back to an individual customer.
Another example of biometrics affecting common people can be seen in Face ID technology. José Ragas shows in What’s in a Face ID? how facial recognition and other measures have been used for centuries to categorize and segregate people. For example, biometrics have been used specifically for identifying criminals and inadvertently segregating groups of people based off of aspects like skin color. Although the intended use of Face ID is harmless or beneficial to the average consumer, this categorization can be used to discriminate against particular groups: as an example, Ragas describes how Stanford researchers developed facial recognition technology that could relatively accurately determine if a person is gay or straight. Complex biometrics are expanding outside the scientific world and affecting average citizens, as technology used everyday like using a face to unlock a smartphone or laptop can actually be segregating and profiling people.
It is inevitable that biometrics and genetics will continue to be used as technology advances. There is a great amount of both positive and negative potential in this data, and therefore we must be cautious when handling this information, being sensitive to its privacy and security. Unfortunately, much of the information gained for the purpose of innovating the biological sciences can’t truly be kept confidential, since the nature of the data is so personal. Even though biometrics and its advances are an important part of modern science and technology, the problems of discrimination and invasion of the privacy of the average person still remain.
Works Cited:
Hacking, Ian. “Biopower and the Avalanche of Printed Numbers.” Biopower, pp. 65–81., doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226226767.003.0003.
Pitts, Peter. “The Privacy Delusions Of Genetic Testing.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 15 Feb. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/02/15/the-privacy-delusions-of-genetic-testing/.
Ragas, Jose. “What’s In A Face ID?” Slate Magazine, Slate, 5 Mar. 2018, slate.com/technology/2018/03/with-apples-face-id-its-time-to-look-at-facial-recognition-techs-problematic-past.html.