23andMe is on the brink. What happens to all its DNA data?

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/03/g-s1-25795/23andme-data-genetic-dna-privacy

30 Comments

  1. DoingItForEli on

    Sold on the black market to get cloned and organ harvested. If you submitted DNA to them, there’s likely a copy of you out there already, writhing in agony, experiencing the closest thing to hell one can imagine. But at least you found a cousin living 5 states over!

  2. I_Never_Lie_II on

    It’ll be bought up by private equity as the company dissolves, then it’ll be sold to the highest bidder, who will likely be the last person you want to have it, but you’ll never even know it happened because it’ll all take place behind doors that are technically open, but impossible to penetrate by anyone other than the people they want behind them.

    Welcome to not owning your body.

  3. Busy-Winter-1897 on

    I am so glad I never even opened up the box I got for Christmas one year. This was my biggest concern.

  4. N0N4GRPBF8ZME1NB5KWL on

    It continues to be sold and distributed to law enforcement. Does something new happen?

  5. PurpleLettuceMan on

    Only good solution would be to sell it to ancestry. Best chance of keeping the data safe unless its destroyed all together, but we already know that wont happen.

  6. Sensitive_Scar_1800 on

    Clone me! I would love to run into me on the street….id literally pay to clone dozens of me and release them into the town where my ex lives! Lol

  7. Does it not fall under the healthcare definition if it sells to a company doing medical research,? I mean, if the data would be applied to use in healthcare.

  8. Difficult to understand why stock price is so
    Low with such a low market cap and they’ve pivoted to multiple business segments.

    The CEO is terrible if she can’t turn a profit that’s pretty much what the board just said when they quit.

  9. Conveniently enough, yesterday another dna data collector was posting a generous discount and easy import from other collectors.

  10. The only Christmas present I’ve ever deadass looked at the person and said no thank you for was a 23andme kit

  11. I can’t believe people willing gave their DNA to some unknown corporation so they could see they’re part African

  12. >Question: What happens to all its DNA data

    I’m guessing the answer rhymes with “sell it for untold millions to insurance companies”

  13. Insurance companies will buy or licence the information so they can quietly raise premiums on individuals with genetic predispositions to expensive illnesses. But it won’t cost them anything because they’ll raise everyone’s premiums a little bit to cover the cost of the data.

  14. All its data will be sold along with the company in accordance with the terms of the agreement every customer signed when they paid for the service.

    “But surely they can’t just *sell* my *genetic* information to some other company,” people will argue, but what did they expect to happen if the company were to be sold in the future? What else would a potential buyer actually want from a company that does genetic testing? That’s their primary asset.

    Frankly, the company probably wouldn’t exist if this weren’t the case, because an investor is going to want certain guarantees that if the company doesn’t do well, they can salvage some of their investment by selling it off, and they can’t sell a company without any desirable assets that a potential buyer would want.

    Anyone who handed their DNA over to some corporation—that never once promised not to do this—hasn’t got a leg to stand on if they don’t want their data sold. It’s going to happen, and they agreed to it.

    We need laws governing this sort of thing if we care about privacy, but I think we don’t actually care about privacy. I think we’ve proven to ourselves and our corporate overlords that we’ll trade privacy for convenience and shiny things any day of the week. People post the most intimate details of their lives online without a second thought; we just don’t care.

  15. GDPR and other frameworks apply here. There will be enormous fines if anything funny happens.

  16. Classic_Result on

    Better than when 23 of Me was shut down. So many investors were BESIDE themselves…

  17. These threads keep popping up and it’s a big issue so I would hope that everyone knows you can delete your own data on their website. If you’re worried about it just login and speak to customer service they will delete your account and your genetic information. You can download your genetic information before you do so if you want to use it for something else and get what you paid for.

    I suggest you tell everyone to delete their own accounts rather than praying some rogue employee is going to do it for you.

  18. Javasndphotoclicks on

    Props these days are so will to be spied on and have their DNA harvested these days.