Twenty-seven states and DC sue 23andMe to oppose the sale of DNA data from its customers without their direct consent
NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James and a bipartisan coalition of 27 other attorneys general filed a lawsuit against 23andMe to protect
I'm totally shocked that a corporation would do something as scummy and predictable as this. Shocked I tell you!
The sale is the entire company and assets to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
NPR reported in this issue:
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said last month it aimed to buy the company for $256 million. Regeneron said it would comply with 23andMe's privacy policies and applicable law. It said it would process all customer personal data in accordance with the consents, privacy policies and statements, terms of service, and notices currently in effect and have security controls in place designed to protect such data.
I don't know much about Regeneron Pharmaceuticals but previously I read from others here that they represent the best case scenario.
I’m so glad I never got around to doing one of these tests
One of my family members moved to the US and did it. Really pissed me off that they'd do that but I guess it's the thing to do there?? They've since moved back to AU but got to leave a little bit of themselves (and by genetics, me) behind to be sold to the highest bidder <3
Thanks heaps for that.
Did any family members though? Particularly close members since that ends up giving a ton of yours as well :\
I know a first cousin of mine did. :( Over 15million people used it.
The only silver lining is that they've been bought by a research company instead of an insurance company. I don't know if theres a legal leg to stand on per the data. They almost 100% agreed to give up ownership to the company, that's the only way it could do any of the genetic relationship analysis that it did.
I tried explaining this to my family. The legal documents you have to agree to should be a huge red flag when all you get is "you are caucasian".
I was familiar with how their single-nucleotide polymorphism fingerprinting worked in principle when I submitted my sample. So, I was not surprised when my report indicated majority Native American (both my parents were born in the Navajo Nation).
As for preventing misuse of the genetic profile 23andMe built, the primary legal protection is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) which prohibits insurance providers and employers from discriminating against patients and employees based upon disorders that are correlated with their genetic information. I believe it is prudent for people to examine their own genetic information in detail. I believe the legal protection GINA offers is sufficient for SNP profiling. I also believe as genetic profiling technology improves, the principles of non-discrimination set by GINA should be peotected with additional legislation.
The amount of damage and criminality this exposes people to is insane
27andDC vs 23andMe
25or6toFour
I was so tempted to try their service, but it was always in the back of my mind, inside the part of my brain that was conscious during marketing 101 class in college: "What's the long term business model here? What happens after they have everyone's genetic identity?" Then it dawned on me like ooooohhhhh that's the plan... no thanks.
They gonna be like "oops we got hacked and now those guys have the data anyway"
They have previously been hacked.
That there's this just opposition must mean quite a decent chunk of politicians and wealthier people may have used this service.
Idk if it was just a conspiracy theory, but I thought a lot of these DNA testing websites were funded by the Mormon church.
I feel like they have bags of cash.
I think it's just ancestry
at least it's gunna be used for drug development now
imagine if palentir bought this stuff
Can whoever posted for everyone to delete their 23andme reply here with an "I told you so?". We owe you that much for alerting us. I saw it a few months ago and did so, thanks!
oh no my call options (i don't actually have call options)
