The privacy creeps at Google have bagged a prestigious award for "biggest threat to genetic privacy" by the "Coalition Against Biopiracy".
Their nomination was for "Worst Corporate Offender". The Coalition Against Biopiracy doesn't like the idea of having individual genome informations in the Google databases.
Neither do I. I want Google and other spam artists to keep their dirty fingers the hell away from my genetical information.
On the other hand, Glyn Moody says "it is much more likely that Google wants to create the ultimate gene reference, but on a purely general, not personal basis." (I found that award in his blog post in the first place).
I don't know why Moody thinks there is any reason to trust Google's dedication to privacy values. Is there any basis in their track record to assume anything but the worst?
The future world Moody describes in his 2004 Guardian article "Googling the genome" seems to give individuals as well as the police the power to google genetic information about everyone. It does not impress me as convincing to deny the possibility now that Google is actually starting to build this particular privacy outrage.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at April 1, 2006 04:47 PM