23andMe has been a well known name since Oprah Winfrey made a public positive statement about it. It seemed to be a success story. But after a data breach (which was not widely publicly known) and a reduced demand, the company struggled and had to dismiss 40% staff. Now the company is filing for Chapter 11 protection – which should allow the company to continue to trade in some way while selling assets and trying to get a refinancing. What will happen to the huge data trove the company keeps about more than 14 million clients? This is private and sensible DNA testing data and should not be given to other users. What could be the harm if the data is misused? Interestingly, the Pentagon told military personnel not to use these at-home DNA kits because it was concerned about national security. A horror scenario also may be that researcher obtain the genetic data to try to identify, through what’s called genome-wide association studies (GWAS) technology and approach, what parts of the genome were associated with being gay … so to know why someone is gay based on their genes. Other users may identify genes of racial groups that may be sensible, positively or negatively influenced, either by medication or external factors. Customers have really nothing to say what happens to their DNA data at 23andMe once the company is taken over, bankrupt or dissolved.
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