New #threat to #privacy ? #Scientists #sound #alarm about #DNA #tool
#Paris (MNP) – The traces of #genetic #material that #humans constantly shed wherever they go could soon be used to track #individual people or even whole #ethnic #groups, #scientists said on Monday, warning of a looming “#ethical quagmire”.
A recently developed technique can glean a huge amount of #information from tiny #samples of genetic material called environmental #DNA, or eDNA, that humans and animals leave behind everywhere — including in the air.
The tool could lead to a range of medical and scientific advances, and could even help track down criminals, according to the authors of a new study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
But it also poses a vast range of concerns around consent, privacy and surveillance, they added.
Humans spread their DNA — which carries genetic information specific to each person — everywhere, by shedding skin or hair cells, coughing out droplets, or in wastewater flushed down toilets.
In recent years, scientists have been increasingly collecting the eDNA of wild animals, in the hopes of helping threatened species.
For the new research, scientists at the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience had been focused on collecting the eDNA of endangered sea turtles.
