US Military advises against DNA kits

The Pentagon has released an internal memo advising all military personnel against using consumer DNA testing kits.

According to the memo, the data collected by these companies could provide a security risk. The memo states this is especially a concern as military personnel are being directly targeted with discounts to encourage them to sign up.

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Security risk

Companies such as 23andMe, Living DNA, and AncestryDNA, sell home DNA testing kits that allow people to look more closely at their own genetic profile. In most instances the information provided is little more than you could discover by looking in the mirror, such as your expected eye or hair color.

Additional information they might provide is broadly generic ancestry information, which can often be found in popular science books on genetics and archaeology.

A follow up investigation by the New York Times had a Pentagon spokesperson suggest the issue was more about how such results might affect personnel, because the US military does not have to ignore medical results of DNA testing. Therefore any potential genetic health markers may affect career progression.

However, another concern could be how much of this information might be sold on to third parties, such as state actors, who could use the DNA data to engineer profiles of the US military.

The memo is reportedly dated for Dec 20, and signed by Jospeh D. Kernan, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and James N. Stewart, assistant secretary of defense for manpower.

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