beefchops

So a lot of my friends and family have been submitting their DNA to these companies for ancestry results. Unfortunately, they got nothing interesting back about their history, unlike what they saw on the commercials. Some of them are egging me on to try it out. As an old timer, I'm not used to giving out my information willy-nilly like that.

Companies portray it as peeking into the distant past of my family history, but if I submit my DNA to these companies, what exactly do they get in terms of sequencing? Do they sequence all my genes, and so they will be able to gleam into what pre-disposed health problems I have, or what at-risk cancers I fall into? Can they see what the state of my body is in right now?

On the market side, do they reserve the right to sell my data to health insurance companies so that my rates could go higher, or could I be denied coverage for some pre-existing ailment? Does this bypass HIPAA compliance since it is voluntarily given to them?

Presumably insurance companies will buy and piece together data submitted by my relatives to make educated guesses at me, and then base my premiums on the DNA submissions of my relatives' health?

Not that I'm planning on doing it, but I was curious to know if anyone knows exactly how this works, or what they do with the troves of data they own?