Blackstone, Ancestry.com, and Consolidation of Genetic Data

submitted by penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable from roundingtheearth.substack.com

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[–]3andfro 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

How many millions have voluntarily sent their DNA to these places? smh

ty for posting this.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Millions, including me. I just checked to be sure mine are set not to be shared "for research purposes".

[–]Newmug 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I like turtles

Why is this bad?

[–]CNicholsonArt 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

This morning I was overhearing an NPR "news" piece on how black Americans are discovering that Ancestry.com is great for discovering their heritage. It was basically a crude ad.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Actually, it's true.

Birth and death records don't exist for many locations before the 1900s and the few records slaves appeared in during the era of slavery only provided a given name, so linking a post-slavery individual to his or her past can be extremely challenging. That's where DNA can help, the matches you get give you a way to connect with others researching your lines so you can compare notes and build on what you know. There's a free online tool called "What Are The Odds?" where you can test hypotheses, something I've used to figure out where adopted cousins fit in.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

On August 5, 2020, during the turmoil that was…2020…Blackstone Inc. purchased a majority stake in Ancestry.com for the likely cheap price of $4.7 billion.

(Reuters) - Blackstone Group Inc BX.N said on Wednesday it agreed to acquire genealogy provider Ancestry.com Inc from private equity rivals for $4.7 billion, including debt, placing a big bet on family-tree chasing as well as personalized medicine.

Ancestry.com is the world’s largest provider of DNA services, allowing customers to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks with tests sent to their home.

Blackstone is hoping that more consumers staying at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic will turn to Ancestry.com for its services.

“We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves,” David Kestnbaum, a Blackstone senior managing director, said in a statement.

Blackstone Inc., not to be confused with the even more behemoth Blackrock Capital. We might describe Blackrock and Blackstone as Fat Man and Little Boy.

On the surface, Blackstone is the world's largest "alternative investment" firm. This means that in addition to buying large companies (which is mostly what they do), they can invest in carbon credits, art, forestry, and non-fungible tokens. Blackstone currently owns a trillion dollars worth of the world's most powerful stuff. And they want for you to know they're going to do a good job for all us humans...That's what they say during appearances on Sesame Street, but don't believe everything you see on TV.

The founders of Blackstone are Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, whom you know must be important because they use their middle names. And they are.

(background on both at the link)

And if you've given Ancestry.com consent to sell your genetic data to third parties, for whatever purposes it might be used for, these are the men who now run those data auctions.