the ruin of 23 and Me

[minoanmiss]

If You're Black, You Have Every Right To Be Paranoid About Where Your Genetic Data Is Going

I have been very curious about the history in my genes but am I glad I didn't go this route.

Comments

[cmcmck]

It's always interested me too but for obvious reasons I too have left well alone!

[sabotabby]

Asajew I can't get why people would ever do 23&Me. Like it's a terrifying prospect to me. I know some folks who did it because of the Sixties/Millennial Scoop but I still wouldn't risk it.

[minoanmiss]

It's all in the history, isn't it? As I walk back in time through my geneology I fall into a void called the Middle Passage. I'm curious about what would be there. But not enough to sell my genes, so.

[dissectionist]

I was warning people for a long time about giving their genetic data to these services, not just because of things like this, but because the services have been more than happy to hand data to cops without a warrant. (This has indeed led to innocent people getting caught up in investigations.) When Frolic told me this data was about to get sold off… I can’t say I was surprised, but I was still sorry to hear about it. The best-case scenario at this point is that a pharma company buys it for the purpose of pharmacogenetic research, because at least then it won’t be a bad actor who’s going to use data against people (like a medical insurance company would, for example).

[dissectionist]

I’ll also add that I’ve seen reports from people in the past who told 23&Me to delete their data, but then they continued to get emails about new matches, which showed that their request was ignored.

All the folks trying to delete their data now… good luck, I suspect. If they didn’t honor requests before, I sure don’t see them doing so now when lowering their number of samples will make them less valuable.