#23 and Me

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[vaspider]

The company said its systems were not breached and that attackers gathered the data by guessing the login credentials of a group of users and then scraping more people’s information from a feature known as DNA Relatives. Users opt into sharing their information through DNA Relatives for others to see. 

...

The full picture of why the data was stolen, how much more the attackers have, and whether it is actually focused entirely on Ashkenazim is still unclear.

...

Callow notes that the situation raises broader questions about keeping sensitive genetic information safe and the risks of making it available in services that are designed like social networks to facilitate sharing.

...

“This incident really highlights the risks associated with DNA databases,” Callow says. “The fact that accounts had reportedly opted into the ‘DNA Relatives’ feature is particularly concerning as it could potentially result in extremely sensitive information becoming public.”

Yeah, so, don't reuse passwords, and be careful what kind of information you share purposefully or opt in to passively sharing.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[cecilyv]

WIP Wednesday

@liminalmemories21 and I are working on something and we love the beginning so much. Thoughts and prayers for the end, y'all. Thoughts and prayers.

“Speaking of the concert,” Maddie says, looking down at her phone, “We better get ready or we’re going to be late.” 

“I think the kids would say that’s right on time,” Hen says, “That’s what Denny keeps trying to convince us of, anyway.” She goes to grab one of the bags next to the front door and she, Karen and Maddie disappear into the bedroom. 

Chim looks down at himself, gestures at Buck and Tommy, “I look hip, right?” 

“Evan tells me I haven’t changed my style since the 80s,” Tommy says, chomping down on a carrot, “I’m not sure you want my sartorial opinion.” 

Buck sighs, they’ve talked about this before,  he did not say -- “That is not what I said. I may have implied that henleys were not from the 80s.” Tommy grins at him and Buck throws a piece of broccoli at him. 

Jee’s eyes widen and she whispers something to Chim, who stifles a laugh and admonishes Buck, “Yeah, Uncle Buck, we don’t throw food in this house.” 

Tommy laughs, picks up the offending vegetable, and pops it into his mouth. “Whoops, sorry, officer, there goes the evidence. Guess you can't charge Uncle Buck."  Jee stares at Buck, her nose slightly crinkled, and she looks so much like Maddie when he's done something wrong that it makes him grin helplessly.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

If you've ever used 23andMe to learn more about your family ancestry, you could be eligible for compensation due to a class-action lawsuit against the company.

Law firms in Toronto and Vancouver launched a class-action lawsuit against 23andMe this week in response to a data breach that exposed users’ highly sensitive and valuable personal information earlier this year.

"The action alleges that contrary to their promises, statements and representations, as well as the privacy regulation and industry standards applicable to them, [23andMe] did not introduce, implement or maintain proper or adequate data retention and data protection practices," reads the lawsuit.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[rat-at-heart]

His girlfriend says he's full of hot air, but he knows for a fact he's at least 80% helium from his Mom's side

[shyjusticewarrior]

Death In The Family AU where Jason takes a 23 and me test instead of immediately fucking off to the middle east

[sportsandlaughs]

[msclaritea]

So, was the company 23andMe involved in creating a bioweapon that would specifically target Edomites, Africans and other enemies, for power and resource consolidation?

[godtrauma]

this is why you don’t give your DNA to random companies so they can tell you that you’re, like, 3% irish

[crossmaddsheart]

“That’s how they got Al Capone, tax evasion.”

“That’s how they got the Golden State Killer, 23 and Me.”

“That’s how they got Andrew Tate, refusing to recycle.”

[davidaugust]

Removing one’s DNA information from 23andMe before their failure exposes all that data is a good idea.

Also a good idea to ask every family member who may have used the service to do so too.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/23andme-trouble-sparks-calls-for-users-to-delete-their-dna-data-heres-how

[tani-b-art]

Let’s talk about genealogy…

I’ve been doing something that’s been a bright spot for me this year! I’m researching my family’s genealogy! And let me tell y’all, just from starting only this year, it’s been a fun-rough! But so rewarding!

So, I’ll give a long yet brief little review of my journey thus far!

The spelling of names was the first hurdle I ran into. I’ve run into my great grandmother’s last name spelled two ways and then found her mother’s (my great-great) first name spelled one way on a website and spelled 5 different ways between obituaries)! Heck in my case, I’ve come across my grandmother’s obituary and her sibling’s obituaries where they all spelled their parents’ names differently! Official census may have this recurrence too — the enumerator could’ve not asked for official spellings from the family and just wrote it how they think it would be spelled. And you also have to factor in our maternal grandparents’ maiden names pre marriage etc. For the longest, I’d been searching for anything using my great-grandmother’s obituary with her last name spelled one way and researched and researched and researched some more only to discover that on the official census, the last name is spelled completely different!

With that being said, I’ve used findagrave.com, familysearch.org. How I even got to those sites were from asking others on online groups I’m a part of AND simply typing my relatives names in a search engine. I’ve had successful hits and unsuccessful ones but recently, I’ve gotten more successful hits.

If you are blessed to have your grands and even great-grands still with you, talk to them (which I unfortunately did not do when both my great-grandmothers were still alive-don’t make my mistake but in my dynamic, both my great-grandmothers spoke Louisiana Creole only so there was a barrier there but I could’ve very well asked my grandmother who was bilingual in English & Louisiana Creole/Kouri-Vini to help translate; thinking back on this, it would’ve been so nice to have these talks with both my great-grandmothers and to hear them confirm all the discoveries I’m making today) and write down what they tell you. Speak to your momma and daddy and aunties and uncles, cousins. Go to their house and look at pictures, look at the photo albums and ask questions! Go to your family reunions and take pictures of your relatives and take pictures of any photos a relative may bring and ask them who the people are in the photos.

Keep obituaries (those are super, super important & helpful and relevant because these are the first line of recording that can start the groundwork; if you have nothing else). Record and write down any and everything that’s told to you. Paper and digital copies of what you’re tracing (please don’t just keep a copy of any of what you find just electronically or just on paper, do both). I’m no expert but I’m just sharing to help others.

I haven’t done this just yet (I’m currently in another state) but the city’s Clerk of Court or state’s archival buildings too hold loads of information. Marriage licenses, birth certificates, christenings, property documents (deeds, purchases of all kinds).

The sites I’ve used so far are familysearch.org and findagrave.com. These have been jackpots for me! I’ve been able to get records of my ancestors from US Censuses dating back to 1940 and 1900 and there’s still more to go back further! I actually found my ancestors who were born in the 1750s! That was emotional for me—every find has been from my great-great-great-great grandmother and grandfather to seeing their children who are my great aunts and uncles! Especially when I found my great-great and my great-great-great grandmothers’ records! My great-great, a woman who we always had an original, old, physical picture of and my 3xs great grandmother who I had had a photocopy picture of from our first family reunion years back and to finally match their faces on all the documentation that linked back to them both—the records actually has these same photos I have…was rewarding! I sat for a good 5 minutes and cried happy tears!

Prior to these sites, I had only fairly solid information on my grandmother’s maternal side of my lineage, now I have more from the maternal side AND paternal too! And as I keep researching, more is coming up! It’s going back to the 1700s with more to go! So that’s beyond exciting! AND my family’s roots are all up in Louisiana! Through and through. No one ever left Louisiana since 1750ish (and I’m not finished)! Black Indigenous American Creole Louisiana roots run deep!

Our ancestors have been here for so long. Very deeply rooted history we have as Black Americans.

Look at that…all I initially really had in mind was to start my little family tree on my grandmother’s side with the 6 photos (with obituaries for my 3 grandmothers on both sides) I had of relatives and look where I’m at now! Started off with photographs and misspelled names and entered question marks for their birth years…as of today, I have correct spelled names and birth dates as well as departure dates, marriage licenses, census with their names and children’s names! It’s pretty amazing! I feel like an archeologist—excavating and unearthing all these beautiful treasures of them…of me!

Let’s talk about genetic ancestry testing……

*The 60 Minutes segment aired October 7, 2007.

*Henry Louis Gates’ segment was November 2010.

I always never quite understood how saliva alone could be the evident tool itself to be able to trace ancestry all the way back on the entire continent of Africa. Yet alone, how could that absolutely or partially determine which tribe you possibly share heritage with. I’ve seen comments where people say Gates was just joking, but all chances of a joke or not aside, this isn’t something to make a mockery out of. People truly are having confidence in this testing and genuinely want to discover their history, ain’t no time for comedy and humor.

The notion of Black Indigenous Americans “are lost because we don’t know where we’re from” has always been the catalyst to wanting to connect ourselves back to Africa and so, the excitement for Black Indigenous Americans to find their roots back to the continent of Africa would absolutely be high and this DNA testing would be the solution.

But I’ve always questioned — how can I (me personally, I cannot speak on anyone else) trace what could be an enormous amount of gap years from now to Africa if I’m not even considering to piece the centuries of years on American soil? If I’ve never done my American lineage yet, I’ve never done my genealogy of who my great-great and greats were here on American soil…how can I skip completely over 200+ years of direct lineage to simply get names of my great-great-greats or get their place of birth and anything else about them before I ancestrally trek the continent of North America and swim an ocean to cross to Africa?

Do you know your grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

Do you know your great-grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

Do you know your great-great grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

Do you know your great-great-great grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

If you don’t know the answers to these, then the first efforts should be genealogy-here. Not genetic testing that allegedly isn’t much accuracy at all. That’s just me.

Black Americans certainly have very traceable paper trails with all the detailed recording that’s been done on our ancestors. Census, ledgers, books, bill of sales, ads, etc.

If you don’t know this or haven’t delved into researching this at all, then you’re missing centuries and decades of your American ancestry that absolutely matters. That DNA testing should actually be records tracing for Black Americans. Fully. Because it takes so much effort and time (and money on occasion) to conduct this as it is. It takes alot of time and mental, physical and spiritual energy. The swap is the easy and apparently inaccurate path. But that genealogy will have you on a long road but a more accurate one with evidence. That was a huge reason for me not ever doing the 23andMe.

Everyone will go about tracing their genealogy how they need to and with what they have. And my advice, to Black Indigenous Americans is to start with your genealogy. Your American ancestry that is very immediate, here, in your homeland.

If anyone has done their ancestry through paper records, share what your success and setbacks and progress have been. What new discoverers have you made? What confirmation did you confirm? What did you disprove? Are oral stories matching up? [heads-up: there will be some families that unfortunately have no paper trail or the paper trail will abruptly just stop and the tracing ends there but that doesn’t mean you and your lineage stops because you are your ancestors’ continued legacy].

I hope you have fun doing it! It’s exciting and frustrating and relieving and confusing at times and absolutely rewarding! It’s tedious work! The pride you’ll feel and the proudness you’ll get for your bloodline! It’s worth it!

Black Americans, we were & are never lost, we were just misdirected. (And, we simply didn’t know this path was even the option). You just have to find your way that your ancestors left behind. They left behind their ancestral print for us and are our guiding light to find our path.

Your heritage, lineage and ancestral footprint is right here in America.

[cecilyv]

Teaser Tuesday

buck/tommy, a 23 and me snippet from @liminalmemories21 and me…just because I really like it? And whatever, it’s jossed but I still want to figure out the end of this.

+++++++

Jee squirms in his arms, protesting the way he’s gone stiff and still.  He puts her down behind him, half turns to tell her, “Go find Uncle Tommy, help him with dinner.  I’ll be right there, okay.”

She gives him a suspicious look, like he’s conning her, and he wills her just this once to not ask questions, and holds his breath until she runs down the hallway, and then steps outside, closing the door behind him, putting himself between this stranger and his family inside.

“Who did you say you were?”

The guy looks a little taken aback. “Oh, umm, I don’t think I actually got that far.  Sorry, that was stupid of me.  I’m Jason.”  He squints.  “I think Madeline,” corrects himself, “Maddie? Is my cousin?  I tried to contact her but I couldn’t find her number or email address.”

Buck knows he's giving away the game, should ask, how did you find this address, or something else but instead he raises his eyebrows, asks, “So you decided to show up on her doorstep instead?”

The guy actually takes a step back at the bite in Buck’s tone.  “Umm, sorry, yeah, no, I can see how that’s weird.  Just,” he holds out his phone.  “I have this picture of her?”  Buck takes it reflexively, has to force himself to take his eyes off this guy long enough to look at the picture.  It's definitely Maddie.  Younger than he thinks he's ever seen her, which makes sense, because she's holding Daniel.

He hands the phone back to Jason, who looks at Buck, and then at the phone, “You must be Daniel.”  He looks delighted.  But Buck can feel the color drain from his face, and his fingers are cold, and the door is the only thing holding him up.

[pears-palette]

Here's to 10 years of being in the Unknown!

I tried to incorporate something from every episode, and while it was tedious, I am so proud of this piece!

[ID in Alt]

[heathandna]

This feels necessary for a DNA blog. I think it's kind of neat to see how Ancestry and 23&me differ 🤷‍♀️