Ask HN: Where can I genetically test myself without risking privacy?

I've been meaning to screen myself for genetic diseases and do not trust services like 23andMe. What options do I have?

ampham 7 hours ago

Maybe Color Health? They’re clinical and HIPAA compliant but you’ll need to read their policies for the details.

https://www.color.com/genomics

vishakh82 21 hours ago

We're building this at Monadic DNA.

I recently posted about our first stab at this at https://vishakh.blog/2025/07/08/using-mpc-for-anonymous-and-....

We'll have a waitlist up pretty soon for people to sign up for a batch of private sequencing.

pajko 22 hours ago

MyHeritage has a long and detailed privacy policy. Seems like that they are aiming to meet EU standards. Don't have personal experience though, and they might not provide everything what you are looking for.

aynyc 11 hours ago

no, not in the sense of total privacy. Outside of that, I would at least go with someone that's HIPAA compliance. Your doctor probably is the shortest path.

a_tartaruga 18 hours ago

It's a bad idea for a bunch of reasons but you could always do it yourself: https://nanoporetech.com/products/sequence/minion

greazy 12 hours ago

Suggesting ONT is like suggesting getting a cpu without mentioning everything else that's required.

Even then, you'll need expertise in analysing the output reads. And EVEN then it's difficult to accurately assess variants.

leoh 18 hours ago

Why is a bad idea for a bunch of reasons?

a_tartaruga 9 hours ago

It is an expensive research project. Actually doing this starting from no experience or tools you're probably looking at 6 months - 1 year and 10k. A little support from trained biologists would help a lot though.

Using DIY tools and not being a trained biostatistician or whoever usually looks at these things you are very likely to face errors you don't know how to account for. I would guess the odds are high you'll encounter scary false positives for example.

It sounds really fun though, something I've always wanted to do with more time.

Davidbrcz 19 hours ago

Your doctor ?

clemailacct1 15 hours ago

The privacy issue still exists in this scenario.

All doctors (including concierge) use 3rd party services for practically everything from blood work to imaging to application products. It’s safe to say that it’s very likely that they’ll outsource the genetic testing to a 3rd party

aynyc 11 hours ago

All of them need to follow HIPAA. That's as close to a protection as you can get right now.

2rsf 18 hours ago

That's the best advice. I have seen some genetic test results. They are not simple to interpret and it is not easy to know what to test for- every person has natural defects and mutations which not always translates to real diseases.