Ever since they were hacked in 2023, genetics and ancestry website 23andMe has been more or less moribund, going from a high of $16 per share to $0.29 today and the resignation of their entire board of directors last month. When we last wrote about them in December of last year, the beleaguered DNA testing company had to revise their initial statement about only getting a “little” hacked (1.4M records) to admitting that they got majorly hacked (6.9M records). As you can imagine, this didn’t bode well for their marketability.
Why are we talking about them again?
It’s been nearly a year since the initial data breach, and judging by the lack of faith the recently departed board of directors had in the company’s founder, they aren’t likely to return to full potential any time soon, if ever. If you were one of the millions of people that sent them your DNA to analyze, you’ve probably already reaped whatever benefits (positive and negative) you will likely get from 23andMe, but they may not be done making money from your data. While they claim that much scientific good has been generated if you were one of the many who consented to allow your de-personalized data to be used by researchers, you may want to consider the consequences of letting a company who’s security practices led to their current downfall continue to have access to your data. Because you do have the option of asking them to delete your data. And seeing as you paid them for the privilege of providing your data, it seems rather mercenary for them to then take your data and continue to sell it without compensating you. Rather, they got hacked, exposed your confidential information, and then continued to (somewhat) operate. If you’d like to see some consequences, you can do your part by asking them to delete your data which can be done merely by logging into your account on their website and submitting that request. Do it. If a majority of their customers were to do this, perhaps it will send a warning to competitors to do a better job with your precious data, and a message to our government about doing a better job protecting our privacy.
Image courtesy of geralt at Pixabay
