Millions of people who sent their saliva to 23andMe in the hopes of finding lost relatives or identifying health risks buried in their DNA now face seeing their genetic information sold to the highest bidder as part of the company’s bankruptcy, setting up a test of existing legal safeguards around privacy and safety.
23andMe has proposed a May 14 auction for the sale of its assets, which include the genetic data of more than 15 million customers. Founded in 2006, 23andMe said in court papers that the data represented “one of the world’s largest crowdsourced platforms for genetic research”.
The auction shines a light on an aspect of corporate restructuring that receives relatively little notice from the general public until moments like this: Customer data is a valuable asset that often changes hands in Chapter 11. That includes patient information from bankrupt hospitals or nursing homes as well as customer data from failed retail chains.
And while existing bankruptcy law contains measures to protect sensitive information of failed companies such as 23andMe, the prospect of key genetic information being sold feeds into long-simmering unease around privacy and safety in the industry.
23andMe’s bankruptcy prompted a flood of social media messages from users worried about what this means for their personal information and that of their families. Those concerns were fuelled in part by a 2023 data breach that compromised the information of roughly 7 million 23andMe customers.
A 23andMe spokeswoman said in an email that customers could delete data within their account and did not need to contact customer care to do so. In a note to customers, the company said the bankruptcy filing did not change how they stored or protected personal data and any buyer would be required to comply with applicable laws with regard to treatment of such information.
Source link
