I feel sad when I read stories like this, and see the fear-mongering and paranoia building efforts. There is NO effort at all by the author or any of the article commenters to seek the facts, to find out the truth of the matter. We need to be level-headed, and make sure we are getting ALL the facts, not just those aligned with particular agendas.
I do not see this as a bad thing, rather a very good thing. Certainly there can be abuses, and when identified they need correction, but in the current privacy climate ... would be a very bad business decision. If you are a small or big company, wanting to produce products to fight and cure disease, the ONE thing you need most right now is all the DNA data you can gather. Contracts like these are EXACTLY the right thing to pursue. And from all accounts, there's no personally identifying info included, just aggregate info. That means no names or contact info included. And as to whether it's right or wrong to participate - it's your opportunity to help in the fight to cure cancer and other diseases, with practically no risk to yourself. I'm not an all-knowing expert, but I have NEVER heard yet of damage to anyone from offering their DNA for research, and I personally don't see any privacy risks either, currently. The fears offered by others are simply conjecture, expecting worst case scenarios, and the chances seem incredibly remote. It seems far more likely that people will experience other adverse events, such as hacked financial info, traffic accidents, natural disasters, etc.
This particular article is followed by comments from people who apparently lean to conspiracy theories, anti-vaccine proponents, and quackery. They seem especially prone to the attitude of "'they' are out to get you". When something or someone is attacked, always look for the other side of the story, and get all the facts you can. A similar but more balanced story is in another G2G thread.
