DNA testing site 23andMe files for bankruptcy protection

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: BBC

DNA testing site 23andMe files for bankruptcy protection


IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES

Author, Lily Jamali
Role, North America Technology correspondent
Twitter, @lilyjamali
Reporting from
San Francisco
24 March 2025, 06:51 GMT
Updated 2 minutes ago

Popular DNA testing firm 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection, and announced that its co-founder and CEO, Anne Wojcicki, has resigned with immediate effect.
The company will now attempt to sell itself under the supervision of a court.

23andMe said in a press release that it plans to continue operating throughout the sale process and that there "are no changes to the way the company stores, manages, or protects customer data."

On Friday, the Attorney General in 23andMe's home state of California issued a consumer alert advising customers to delete their data from the site given the company's "reported financial distress."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q4r9xy9wro.amp

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I guess it was in the genes.

[Think. Again.]

1. Thank goodness I never let them have my DNA...

....the individual and personal DNA information they've collected over the years will be a goldmine to whoever purchases their assets in the bankruptcy sale, and without any of the restrictions or promises the original 23andme company might have made about reselling or sharing that info.

[Canada Kid]

2. Bad DNA

Perhaps someone will acquire the company for cheap and make a CLONE of itself!

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. One would hope that they have procedures in place to destroy that collection should someone bad want to acquire it.

(Not the information, the actual collection of DNA that they haver received.) Right, 23andMe?
.
.
.
.
Right??

(This is why I would NEVER do something like this. Not without assurances that the material would be destroyed and the information be protected against takeover from anyone. Since they would never do this, I would never do that.)

[ToxMarz]

10. It is impossible to know if data has been destroyed, or highly unlikely that it ever is

partiuclarly if it has any value. It's not like an old aircraft carrier we can see get blown up and sink to the bottom of the ocean to become a coral reef. All that could be verfied is that it is no longer found on the servers it was previously known to be stored on, and maybe some of those reliable "sworn statements" that is was destroyed. And how does anyone know it was ever really secured in the first place. It's the only thing of value the company has, and bankruptcy is about finding the value left in the asset and getting maximum recovery for debtors.

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. Exactly. (n/t)

[Tactical Peek]

4. Twenty-three skiddoo.

[hay rick]

8. LOL on behalf of a certain age group.

[darkstar]

9. Hee-hee!

[Hotler]

5. No way in hell is anyone getting my DNA without a court order. Your DNA is your life's password. nt

[defacto7]

6. They misrepresented the science to gain customers.

Giving the impression that DNA testing can tell you everything about your ancestry is just not true. Touting 99.7% accuracy was misleading. DNA testing can tell an individual about themselves with high accuracy but that does not hold true with ancestry. It can give a very general idea of the probabilities but it can also miss the mark quite a bit by skipping whole generations. Even siblings can have different outcomes. They made most of their profit pushing ancestry. I would never trust DNA alone. You have to back it up with a trustworthy genealogy record which is actually the only real way to know.
On the other hand, your present status of identity, health and well-being can be accurately measured in DNA.
But to me, the whole idea goes to hell when considering the data collection. That's a trap whether by accident or by design.

[LauraInLA]

7. CA's Attorney General has instructions for downloading and deleting data and requesting sample destruction.

https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-urgently-issues-consumer-alert-23andme-customers?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery