Apple Offers Free Genetic Testing to Cupertino Employees

[RalfTheDog]

Maximum penalty of $1.5M? Peanuts...

If it is a willful violation, not just a mistake, it can cost individuals their license. The bad publicity for a company that prides it's self on privacy being a human right would be in the billions.
[automerge]1576261999[/automerge]

Maximum penalty of $1.5M? Peanuts...

One and a half million for Apple would be nothing. For a healthcare provider, it could be a shutdown event. Remember, most of the companies providing these services are quite small.

Edited one more time to say, that is in addition to the civil lawsuits and the bad will shown to Apple workers.

 

[ericwn]

No one can know that.

Yup, that goes both ways.
Given their publicity and the values they like to mention a return flow of information would be disastrous.

Besides, in dubio pro reo.

 

[guzhogi]

Reminds me of this quote. While I'd like to believe that Apple's doing this so that the employees can get proper medical coverage, I've seen enough crap bosses to to wonder how innocent it is.

 

[ElectricPotato]

The results are in: your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberries.

 

[Trik]

The vitriol around this is ridiculous. Apple is essentially giving you a code to redeem at Color if you want to get some genetic testing done and learn about your likelihood of various diseases / cancers. This is a very nice perk.

Can Apple access the data? Of course not. If you are concerned about Apple accessing this data, then I suspect you're the same type that worries that any company can access the records of any other company. So you're probably avoiding all genetic testing. Apple providing its employees with a code to redeem for Color is similar to providing you healthcare. I am not worried my employer is getting a report from my therapist because I have mental health provisions in my employer provided healthcare.

 

[entropys]

Only on MacRumors would Apple hate be such that trying to prevent illness/disease is seen as a bad thing. Yes what a terrible thing that a company would put in place programs to try and prevent employees from incurring significant health care costs in the first place.

Full disclosure: the insurance company I work for has Apple as one of its self insured customers. We have a dedicated team that supports Apple 24/7.

It isn’t Apple Hate, it is recognition that the corporate state is getting too powerful. the powerful are getting to know too much about the little guy, now even their DNA?
In this particular instance corporations getting to know far too much about their employees, and the risk of consequences down the track. You don’t see it as your company’s business model would benefit from this.

this is a risk because of the way the US does private health insurance. in an ideal world people would be responsible for their own health insurance, and one’s employer would have absolutely no say in it. This would of course suck for insurance providers, but would significantly improve insurance costs via increased competition as they would have to work for each individual’s business, rather than just wine and dine corporate execs. health insurance should not be salary packaged.

And now it seems true private insurance could have the added bonus of another road block to the creation of the a Big Brother State.
[automerge]1576265006[/automerge]

The vitriol around this is ridiculous. Apple is essentially giving you a code to redeem at Color if you want to get some genetic testing done and learn about your likelihood of various diseases / cancers. This is a very nice perk.

Can Apple access the data? Of course not. If you are concerned about Apple accessing this data, then I suspect you're the same type that worries that any company can access the records of any other company. So you're probably avoiding all genetic testing. Apple providing its employees with a code to redeem for Color is similar to providing you healthcare. I am not worried my employer is getting a report from my therapist because I have mental health provisions in my employer provided healthcare.

If you can’t see the downstream risks of this you deserve what will eventually happen to you.

 

[macfacts]

Apple loves collecting data.

 

[Khedron]

It's all about cost/benefit. From the healthcare provider's perspective, this could cost licenses. From Apple's perspective, the bad publicity would have an enormous cost. In both cases, the benefit would be trivial.

Apple doesn't seem to be suffering any consequences from the fact that they spied on their own employees' private iPhone communications.

What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone, until it's useful to Apple.

 

[||\||]

Apple providing its employees with a code to redeem for Color is similar to providing you healthcare. I am not worried my employer is getting a report from my therapist because I have mental health provisions in my employer provided healthcare.

Does your employer choose the doctor or clinic you go to?

No?

Then it is not similar.

 

[Analog Kid]

It isn’t Apple Hate, it is recognition that the corporate state is getting too powerful. the powerful are getting to know too much about the little guy, now even their DNA?
In this particular instance corporations getting to know far too much about their employees, and the risk of consequences down the track. You don’t see it as your company’s business model would benefit from this.

this is a risk because of the way the US does private health insurance. in an ideal world people would be responsible for their own health insurance, and one’s employer would have absolutely no say in it. This would of course suck for insurance providers, but would significantly improve insurance costs via increased competition as they would have to work for each individual’s business, rather than just wine and dine corporate execs. health insurance should not be salary packaged.

And now it seems true private insurance could have the added bonus of another road block to the creation of the a Big Brother State.
[automerge]1576265006[/automerge]

If you can’t see the downstream risks of this you deserve what will eventually happen to you.

Adding further, the regulation on this is still in its infancy and the tech is less that complete but there is no shredder for digital data.

Until I stop hearing about passwords and credit card data being stolen and sold on the dark web, I'm keeping my DNA to myself.

 

[Trik]

It isn’t Apple Hate, it is recognition that the corporate state is getting too powerful. the powerful are getting to know too much about the little guy, now even their DNA?
In this particular instance corporations getting to know far too much about their employees, and the risk of consequences down the track. You don’t see it as your company’s business model would benefit from this.

this is a risk because of the way the US does private health insurance. in an ideal world people would be responsible for their own health insurance, and one’s employer would have absolutely no say in it. This would of course suck for insurance providers, but would significantly improve insurance costs via increased competition as they would have to work for each individual’s business, rather than just wine and dine corporate execs. health insurance should not be salary packaged.

And now it seems true private insurance could have the added bonus of another road block to the creation of the a Big Brother State.
[automerge]1576265006[/automerge]

If you can’t see the downstream risks of this you deserve what will eventually happen to you.

Yes, I've seen Gattaca, I know the downstream risks. Do your own risk analysis, are you more likely to die from some cancer / disease you didn't realize you were particularly at risk to, or losing your job in the eventual dystopian future where your employer decides to fire people based on their DNA.

Maybe, just maybe, this company that lost their CEO to a particularly treatable (although rare form) cancer is trying to keep that from happening to other employees.

But sure, I'll take unemployed and alive if comes to that.

 

[BWhaler]

This is an amazing benefit. As someone who knows this field well, the future of treatment breakthroughs map directly to personalized medicine. An understanding of your genes is the first step.

Well done Apple.

 

[Analog Kid]

If it is a willful violation, not just a mistake, it can cost individuals their license. The bad publicity for a company that prides it's self on privacy being a human right would be in the billions.
[automerge]1576261999[/automerge]

One and a half million for Apple would be nothing. For a healthcare provider, it could be a shutdown event. Remember, most of the companies providing these services are quite small.

Edited one more time to say, that is in addition to the civil lawsuits and the bad will shown to Apple workers.

I read an article about the culture at Amazon where someone was quoted as saying "I've seen every one of my coworkers cry", but they put a smile on every box and now I gotta find gifts for the family!

Seen the list of allegations against Uber's working environment? Still going strong-- they changed CEOs and now everyone gets to pat themselves on the back for being proactive and keep all their money.

How many companies have gutted their employee pension plans, exposed their workers to hazardous conditions, discriminated against for any number of reasons?

There is no bad publicity any more... The court of public opinion has been in recess for at least a decade.

When people start going to jail, things will change.

I should say that my feelings on this aren't so much about Apple, which will probably do the right thing, but the general trend.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Apple doesn't seem to be suffering any consequences from the fact that they spied on their own employees' private iPhone communications.

What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone, until it's useful to Apple.

If this is true, please link to the story.

 

[Baymowe335]

This is a good way for Apple to weed out those employees that may become a significant health care cost.

Can’t wait for people to complain about this in someway.

See above for usual cynicism.

 

[TGM85]

I did one of those Ancestry kits. It was weird as it showed my history as being only Ireland and northern England even though my mother‘s side of the family is almost entirely German.

Seems like you might want to have a chat with your grandma on your mother's side. Find out how much she liked the milkman back in the day

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Definitely read that privacy policy.

 

[V_Man]

Only on MacRumors would Apple hate be such that trying to prevent illness/disease is seen as a bad thing. Yes what a terrible thing that a company would put in place programs to try and prevent employees from incurring significant health care costs in the first place.

Full disclosure: the insurance company I work for has Apple as one of its self insured customers. We have a dedicated team that supports Apple 24/7.

Or screening for possible high risk employees. Hmmmmm. Does make you think.

Apple is magnificent at telling you how important privacy is yet then wants to collect and “screen“ employees dna. Talk about a huge privacy breach. Yet Apple fans happily want to allow Apple to collect this as a “perk”

I love my Apple devices but I wouldn’t take advantage of this “opportunity”

 

[citysnaps]

This is a good way for Apple to weed out those employees that may become a significant health care cost.

What a nice holiday bowl of FUD.

 

[patent10021]

Apple wants to be sure that people who look black or white are really not Chinese nationals stealing secrets.

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

The idea and likely the intention is not bad, but "Genetic testing is expected to help employees uncover health problems that could turn into risks later in time" is something that needs to be approached very very carefully. Applying statistics to the individual is practically the wrong approach unless the risk is an actual risk. Like 25% chance of getting a specific type of issue that can be very specifically monitored.
However, statistics like "you have a 50% increased risk of xxxxx cancer" is statistical BS. That usually means that the average person chance of getting this is (e.g.) 1:100000. Now your chance is 1.5:100000 which translates to 1:66'666.

While I'm all-in for big data analysis on health data (the benefit greatly outweighs the risks in privacy if done properly) we need to be very careful to have perfectly healthy people worrying about negligble risks (as mentioned above). Because at the end of the day enough worrying greatly increases the risk of actual health problems...

For now, let's not speculate about abuse of that data for e.g. health care premiums...

 

[HiRez]

Also, if the Republicans succeed in completely rolling back the ACA (aka Obamacare), I could see the database of this data being used by insurers to claim pre-existing conditions and deny coverage, or put you into a very expensive high-risk pool. And no, I don't trust them to keep this data secure, how can anyone based on all that we know goes on today?

 

[YaBe]

Can’t wait for people to complain about this in someway.

I like how nowadays people are not even entitled to their own opinion...

If you like something or agree with something you are immediately a fanboy, otherwise you are a hater.

I just like to think people have their own minds and can express their opinions, without putting a tag on them.

 

[fairuz]

I did one of those Ancestry kits. It was weird as it showed my history as being only Ireland and northern England even though my mother‘s side of the family is almost entirely German.

Germans and Brits are related, and the countries aren't very distant, so it's not surprising.

 

[ericwn]

Also, if the Republicans succeed in completely rolling back the ACA (aka Obamacare), I could see the database of this data being used by insurers to claim pre-existing conditions and deny coverage, or put you into a very expensive high-risk pool. And no, I don't trust them to keep this data secure, how can anyone based on all that we know goes on today?

Plenty of bad stuff can happen with all our current health data as well. But should that stop us from going to a doctor when I’ll or explore new potential ways to explore what issues will occur down the road?