Summary
Genetic testing company 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy, putting the DNA data of millions of users at risk of being sold.
Privacy advocates have urged consumers to delete their data amid fears it could be sold to data brokers or used for targeted advertising.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta advised customers to consider deleting their profiles after the company’s share price crash heightened concerns.
CEO Anne Wojcicki reportedly rejected three takeover bids before the bankruptcy filing, raising questions about the company’s future and data protection.
Here comes venture capital to the “rescue!”
Fred: pulls off venture capital mask to reveal private equity mask underneath
Daphne: pulls off private equity mask to reveal 1% mask
Shaggy: pulls off 1% mask to reveal klan hood
Velma: “Ji—eezus Christ!”
I say this without schadenfreude, but I fucking called it straight out of the gate.
Every single person who was enticed or cajoled into submitting these tests as a novelty or curiosity has potentially compromised the personal security of every single member of their immediate & extended family, as well as their descendants. At the very least, those parties previously mentioned may face ludicrous rates for life/health insurance or outright denial of coverage. The company to which they submitted their genetic code no longer exists, and their family’s entire biological blueprint is on the auction block. Think before you make decisions, people.
Think before you make decisions, people
Are you really saying that now, in the trump era after trump actually won by votes?
their family’s entire biological blueprint
I don’t believe this part holds up. The type of sequencing you’re talking about is an incredibly labor- and time-intensive task. The good folk at these fastfood laboratories are just comparing historical markers and shooting off a list of what those markers tell about you.
It still remains to be seen if insurance companies will eat this data up or not, but they will have trouble providing any justification for dismissing claims without sounding pretty racist.
Pretty sure they already shared all that data with the feds. They can cross reference and calculate the DNA of almost every person in the US that has a family there. I guess it would be worse if a private company could do that too, but with Trump im not sure if thats even true anymore.
The Nazis would have given everything for this tech.
Veritasiums vid on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT18KJouHWg
And a quote from the top comment
“My biggest concern is health insurance. If you have someone’s DNA profile, and that gets into the wrong hands, or laws enacted, resulting in health insurance companies having access to knowing that this person has a proclivity to Parkinson’s, then rates could skyrocket. This is a massive privacy issue.”
Luckily we have GINA which, like most other things that would give people rights, won’t be enforced.
Ah man, imagine the world if governments and companies actually respected basic human rights.
I always think that my depression comes from having watched too much Star Trek as a kid. I expected better for us by now.
I remember that video when it was new, and how very uncritical veritasium was
Disappointing
I’m so glad I was never dumb enough to send them or any other ancestry company a dna sample.
Yep - both parents and my only sibling have done it. Thanks, guys, glad I didn’t call this a decade ago.
Cassandra of Troy just called, she said that no one listens to her either 😑
I was the holdout. They bought me a kit and it felt pointless resisting.
Guess I was right and too much of a slug to stand up for it.
Therein lies the rub. A complete catalogue is not necessary when a partially completed jigsaw puzzle will suffice. A lot of people have unexpected uncomfortable questions in their future about their grandmother’s massive stroke, their uncle’s schizophrenia, their cousin’s mania-induced crime spree, or maybe even their 3rd-cousin’s cancer diagnosis. Rates are set to increase across the board, no family is immune.
I don’t speak to any of my extended family, but I’m hoping the fact that there’s been so much shitty behavior that none of them would want to expose any more of it via DNA. My mom already has 8 siblings she knows of, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there were a couple more out there, and pretty much all of my uncles are the type to have affairs.
I was coerced into it because someone thought they were my illegitimate half-sibling. I was extremely hesitant due to privacy concerns but I succumbed to family pressure. Through the test, we discovered she’s more likely to be my cousin. Immediately after, I “deleted” all my info. I guess you can only take their word for it.
but hey, at least some americans got to make a twitter post about their irish+italian+french+british+swedish+argentinian ancestry!
