Eight years ago, my brother gave his DNA to 23andMe. We can't take it back — and it may soon get sold
www.abc.net.au
In what now seems like an act of reckless naivety, I bought my brother a 23andMe at-home DNA-test birthday present. Now the struggling company may sell its treasure trove of genetic data.

In short:

Popular genetic testing company 23andMe is facing bankruptcy and may sell the genetic data of its 15 million customers.

Users have the option to delete their data, but the company can retain it for three years. Data that’s already been sold to researchers may not be able to be deleted.

What’s next?

23andMe’s co-founder and CEO is attempting to buy the company’s remaining shares to take back control.

Then, in 2020, there was a story about US police tracking down a murderer through members of his family who had done at-home genetic testing.

This effectively meant I had dobbed in our entire extended family for past and future crimes.

"The data is now integrated into the research of the big pharma company.

And there’s another problem. There’s a good chance that genetic data stripped of personal information such as name, address and date of birth can be linked back to the individual by combining it with other datasets.

23andMe’s privacy policy also allows the company to sell customers’ genetic data if the company goes bankrupt, is merged or acquired.

In fact, such an event has happened once already.

And unlike passwords, phone numbers, email addresses and many other kinds of personal data, raw DNA data can never be changed.