GENETIC DATA FROM 23&ME SEEMS ABOUT TO FLEE
Americans flocked to trace their genetic heritage beginning in 2006 when 23&Me went live with its testing. From what we have read users consented to commercial use of the data which could be drawn from the test kits customers provided and the company began to monetize some of that data for use in clinical studies. Meanwhile, the company never made a profit and its revenue stream thinned along with the market of people interested in this enterprise. On March 23, after several acquisition deals fell through the holding company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Its main asset is…… your genetic material or at least the data compiled from it.
Indications are that the bankruptcy court managing this company’s reorganization may act promptly to turn this data into cash in order to pay creditors of 23&Me Holdings. That may sound unfair, but bankruptcy courts are not charged with protecting data that you likely “agreed” to allow to be shared under your electronic contract with the business. Today all of us are besieged with invitations to subscribe to all kinds of services where, deep in the contract wording is your accession to your data being shared. Last week my bank offered me free credit monitoring together with access to my credit scores. The price? My data. No, they won’t (we hope) be sharing my account numbers and balances but there are lots of hungry lenders and consumer product companies that would like to know more about my habits and proclivities. And, these unknown end users may be less careful about assuring that my genetic or financial profile is not somehow filched by the armies of off and on-shore hackers who devote their days to expanding the estimated $8 trillion in fraud perpetrated electronically last year.
There are guides to trying to recover your 23&Me information. Here is California’s:
