Does family always matter? Public genomes and their effect on relatives

Coinciding with the publication of the genome sequence of the HeLa cancer cell line last summer NIH officials noted that 'the full [HeLa] sequence data could potentially uncover unwanted information about people whose identity is widely known' -namely the family of Ms Lacks Such unwanted information could include disease risks, response to drugs, ancestral roots, and in some cases an individual's actual identity