I hope I deleted my data just in time not to be (legally) included in this.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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Privacy
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Sweet summer child.
That's why I specified legally. Which, being American involved, I reckon still has very little meaning. I cannot undo mistakes I made 15 years ago. Stoically, I can only worry about how I can act in the present.
Narrator:
They didn't.
Hindsight is 20/20. ITT lots of folks proud of themselves for not falling into this trap, but try to understand, 23andme was named "invention of the year" by Time in 2008. That's ~~before~~ [edit: around the time] google and facebook had begun monetizing private data. Data privacy, or even the power of data itself, was hardly appreciated by private companies let alone in the public consciousness.
Orphans, people with absent parents, decedents of slaves, the list goes on for folks who would understandably go for an affordable way to access their genetic history. Sure, there were plenty of folks since then who had all the information and still went for it, but what about all those who became aware of it too late and when they requested their data be deleted were told it would be kept for 3 years!
I'm saddened to see more victim blaming here than anger at the ToS/privacy policy fuckery and a complete lack of consumer protection.
I didn't get the choice when my easily fooled parents decided it was a good idea.
We tried the 'delete your 23 and me data' but who the fuck knows if that works.
Now some corpos own my DNA probably.
Thanks mom.
Wasn’t 23 and me already a corpo that owned it though
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I only want to disagree about Facebook not monetizing private data in 2008.
My wife was in politics/campaign management. They were already selling fairly sophisticated targeted ads by then.
I was shocked/terrified by how well they were targeting and it wasn't even close to what they have today.
FUCK CORPORATIONS.
You're right. My mistake. I was going off memory and 2009 came to mind, but now that you mention it I do remember hearing about tech for the 2008 election- but I heard that years later, after cambridge analytica. All's to say, it was emerging around that time and it wasn't a big, public announcement. People around the epicenter knew but most were in the dark. I know i was, till the mid 2010's. Since then I have 0 trust in big tech/most corporations, but I've definitely made my share of mistakes and wish there were more protections/public education.
You're probably affected by this even if you didn't participate.
The thing about genetics is you can make reasonable predictions about individuals if you have data on their relatives. Heck, you can reasonably make regional predictions with genetic data that will be fairly accurate.
If any of your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc took this test, then you are now at least a little exposed.
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i deleted my data a month or two ago, am i safe?
Hahahahahaha
I remember when I was younger and I was really learning about the capitalist system, but not from a communist point of view or a socialist point of view. I was just caught up with libertarianism and right-wing ideology and whatever, but nothing like it is today and I was learning about IBM and how they categorize the Jews in the camps. And then I realized all these corporations all have a legacy of brutality. There's more to all this, and people are just not strong enough to accept what's happening in our country. I'm a Libertarian Socialist.
I literally had an econ professor years ago who directly told us "do not take a genetics test". This was before the ACA
The reason was simple. It's information that once a private company gets a hold of it, they will use it to hurt you. Whether it's a drug company that learns you're predisposed to addiction, so better to give you it people around you nice temporary discounts on addictive meds, or an insurance company that learns you're predisposed to cancer, so better to look for ways to deny or drop coverage.
Once these companies know a little bit about your nature, they'll exploit any aspect possible to increase profits.
This was not a progressive/socialist econ professor. Just someone who knows how capitalism works.
Unfortunately, it is too late. They don't need your specific genetic code to extrapolate about you, just the code of one of your relatives who wanted to find out their heritage for fun.
Without serious privacy laws we will be used and abused by corporations, get ready to experience Gattaca in real life.
I never fell for it. I hope none of my siblings did, either.
I would have thought that data would be worth more. Maybe the AI guys will just steal it, instead?
Siblings and first cousins.
Most likely the data 23andme already gathered is enough to narrow down just about anybody in the US.
340 million and me
I wonder if there was anything in the T&Cs that mentioned extrapolation of data leading to identifying genetic relatives and whether their consent was void on this basis. Or whether this could be grounds for interesting lawsuits from nonconsensual relatives being identifiable from the participants' data.
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This is such a dramatic understatement. They didn’t just sell the genetic data of those 15 million customers. They sold the data of everyone they’re related to, as well. Which is the majority of the population.
You really don’t need to sample a large percentage to get the data of almost everyone.
My aunt did this along with posting a bunch of family photos and falling for those quizzes that ask your pet's name or your childhood address. If you have one person like that the privacy of your entire family is compromised.
We told her back around 2010 not to do this kind of stuff, but she's somewhere between "If I have nothing to hide" and "what's the harm?". I hope she gets it now, but we don't talk to her often
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entirely fucking predictable. and 256 mil is chump change for essentially genetic data that could be extrapolated to most of the country.
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And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why you don't give your data to companies: their executives and shareholders care more about their bottom line than your privacy.
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Shoutout to my dumbass relatives for sending their DNA to this company—thanks for nothing!
My dad was all about this for a while, including convincing my siblings and a few of his siblings to get the report.
I guess that means I'm somehow linked in to this if I ever happen to leave my DNA laying around in the wrong place.
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