What type of data allows de-identifiable genomic data to reveal individual identities?
Removing information like patient names and phone numbers and use other data like Age, Medical
history, Sex type, etc
What percentage of the U.S. population could be identified with the techniques summarized in the
paper?
The combination of birthdate, gender, and five-digit zip code can uniquely identify 87% of U.S.
residents.
What are the potential genetic privacy risks and relevant ethics and regulations for sharing and
protecting human genomics data.
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Adversary attacks could potentially be deployed to strategically breach genetic privacy by
disclosing personal identities or private traits of the individuals.
Cryptographic work has suggested homomorphic encryption and multiparty computation for
protecting data.
HIPPA regulates the usage of genomic data.
Step 1
Make sure to review all the below steps before answering this prompt. For this case study, you will
play the role of a cybersecurity consultant who has been hired to provide an overview of risks and
mitigations related to genetic privacy information for an HR consulting firm. The firm often
recommends that businesses incentivize employees to utilize fitness trackers and various consumer
genetic testing services in order to save money via preventative care.
What clear, concise message can you deliver in the space of 200-300 words that will summarize the
research presented in the paper?
FITNESS TRACKERS
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They are generally provided by companies to improve the health consciousness among
them. The access to human behaviour data monitored from various mobile devices and
social media, genetic privacy becomes a serious problem when sharing not only genomic
data but also social and mobile data.
RISKS
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There are concerns about protecting privacy not only from individuals who search for drugs
matching their genetic features, but also from pharmaceutical companies that are reluctant
to reveal specific genetic biomarkers for their drugs. Adversary attacks on users are also a
risk for breaching genetic privacy information.
MITIGATION
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Homomorphic encryption or secure genetic interpretation should be used to mitigate risks.
In this method, users send encrypted versions of their genomes to the third party for
interpretation. The interpretation service cannot read the plain genotypic values and
executes the analytical algorithms on the encrypted genotypes directly. Because of the
special mathematical properties of the homomorphic cryptosystem, the user simply
decrypts the results given by the interpretation service to obtain the analytical results. In the
whole process, the user does not expose genotypes or any sensitive information to the
service provider, and interpretation companies can offer their service to users who are
concerned about their privacy.
Multiparty computation which allows two or more entities, each of which has some private
genetic data, to execute a computation on these private inputs without revealing the input
to each other or disclosing it to a third party.