Bill Maris, a managing partner at Google Ventures, has moved the firm's investments toward companies that focus on slowing aging, combating disease, and lengthening life, Bloomberg Business says. A number of these companies are aim to tackle those problems by collecting consumers' DNA — Maris helped form Calico and Google Ventures invested in 23andMe — but he dismisses concerns regarding genetic privacy, it adds.
"If we each keep our genetic information secret, then we're all going to die," he says.
Maris further argues that genomic data isn't really private as people leave it behind wherever they go. If someone really wanted to know someone else's genetic data, all that person would have to do is fish a coffee cup out of the trash, not hack a server.
He also notes that extending people's life expectancies, especially if it's a significant length, will bring up other challenges, such as the increased food that would be needed to feed everyone.