A new smartphone app lets users carry around an encrypted version of their genome, reports the New Scientist. "A digitised genome reveals a treasure trove of very personal data as well as information about your siblings and current or future progeny," developer Emiliano De Cristofaro tells the New Scientist. "However, these wonderful advances and prospects are rife with serious privacy risks."
The app, called Genodriod, was developed by De Cristofaro at Xerox's PARC lab and it only decrypts small sections of the genome when those parts needs to be compared to a reference database. "This way, any attack would only ever compromise a small stretch of DNA," the New Scientist says.