House intelligence committee member warns people not to share health data with sites like 23andMe because it can be used to program new bio-weapons to target them.
A member of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee warned that bio-weapons are being made that use a target's DNA to only kill that person.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday, US Rep Jason Crow of Colorado warned Americans to not be so cavalier about sharing their DNA with private companies due to the coming of the new type of weapon.
'You can actually take someone's DNA, take, you know, their medical profile and you can target a biological weapon that will kill that person or take them off the battlefield or make them inoperable,' Crow said.
The congressman said the development of the weapons is worrisome given the popularity of DNA testing services, where people willingly share their genetic mapping with businesses to gain insight on their genealogy and health.
'You can't have a discussion about this without talking about privacy and the protection of commercial data because expectations of privacy have degraded over the last 20 years,' the Democratic lawmaker said.
'Young folks actually have very little expectation of privacy, that's what the polling and the data show."
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