arXiv subjects

Alexandros Mittos

Publications and source records attributed to Alexandros Mittos.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

"And We Will Fight For Our Race!" A Measurement Study of Genetic Testing Conversations on Reddit and 4chan

Progress in genomics has enabled the emergence of a booming market for "direct-to-consumer" genetic testing. Nowadays, companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA provide affordable health, genealogy, and ancestry reports, and have already tested tens of millions of customers. At the same time, alt- and far-right groups have also taken an interest in genetic testing, using them to attack minorities and prove their genetic "purity." In this paper, we present a measurement study shedding light on how genetic testing is being discussed on Web communities in Reddit and 4chan. We collect 1.3M comments posted over 27 months on the two platforms, using a set of 280 keywords related to genetic testing. We then use NLP and computer vision tools to identify trends, themes, and topics of discussion. Our analysis shows that genetic testing attracts a lot of attention on Reddit and 4chan, with discussions often including highly toxic language expressed through hateful, racist, and misogynistic comments. In particular, on 4chan's politically incorrect board (/pol/), content from genetic testing conversations involves several alt-right personalities and openly antisemitic rhetoric, often conveyed through memes. Finally, we find that discussions build around user groups, from technology enthusiasts to communities promoting fringe political views.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2018

Systematizing Genome Privacy Research: A Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Perspective

Rapid advances in human genomics are enabling researchers to gain a better understanding of the role of the genome in our health and well-being, stimulating hope for more effective and cost efficient healthcare. However, this also prompts a number of security and privacy concerns stemming from the distinctive characteristics of genomic data. To address them, a new research community has emerged and produced a large number of publications and initiatives. In this paper, we rely on a structured methodology to contextualize and provide a critical analysis of the current knowledge on privacy-enhancing technologies used for testing, storing, and sharing genomic data, using a representative sample of the work published in the past decade. We identify and discuss limitations, technical challenges, and issues faced by the community, focusing in particular on those that are inherently tied to the nature of the problem and are harder for the community alone to address. Finally, we report on the importance and difficulty of the identified challenges based on an online survey of genome data privacy experts

cs.CR↗

arXiv2018

"23andMe confirms: I'm super white" -- Analyzing Twitter Discourse On Genetic Testing

Recent progress in genomics is bringing genetic testing to the masses. Participatory public initiatives are underway to sequence the genome of millions of volunteers, and a new market is booming with a number of companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA offering affordable tests directly to consumers. Consequently, news, experiences, and views on genetic testing are increasingly shared and discussed online and on social networks like Twitter. In this paper, we present a large-scale analysis of Twitter discourse on genetic testing. We collect 302K tweets from 113K users, posted over 2.5 years, by using thirteen keywords related to genetic testing companies and public initiatives as search keywords. We study both the tweets and the users posting them along several axes, aiming to understand who tweets about genetic testing, what they talk about, and how they use Twitter for that. Among other things, we find that tweets about genetic testing originate from accounts that overall appear to be interested in digital health and technology. Also, marketing efforts as well as announcements, such as the FDA's suspension of 23andMe's health reports, influence the type and the nature of user engagement.Finally, we report on users who share screenshots of their results, and raise a few ethical and societal questions as we find evidence of groups associating genetic testing to racist ideologies.

cs.SI↗