The consumer-genomics company 23andMe just sold its biobank of customer genetic data to drugmaker Regeneron for $256 million.
Regeneron is to pay $256 million in cash to acquire “substantially all” of 23andMe’s assets, including its massive biobank of around 15 million customer genetic samples and data.
You must log in or register to comment.
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don’t promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
- 0 users online
- 124 users / day
- 1.05K users / week
- 1.3K users / month
- 4.58K users / 6 months
- 1 subscriber
- 3.89K Posts
- 98.1K Comments
- Modlog
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.
If we believe 23 and me, they have only recieved 11 data requests for 15 accounts and provided zero data to law enforcement.
https://www.23andme.com/transparency-report/
That is a report on formal law enforcement requests for direct account information. Law enforcement is known to use genetic ancestry, so either they are using other sites or just running the tests themselves instead of doing a formal request.
I couldn’t find a case for suing companies, just defense requests to dismiss using the data in court but I might not be using the right search terms.
Yes but what about the times law enforcement sent in the DNA and found relatives. Three are stories of that happening if I remember correctly.
What about the thing I said?
It’s a bit of both from what I gather. I.e. The Golden State killer was caught through GEDmatch and 23AM users have to manually upload their DNA profile to GEDmatch. On the other hand GEDmatch gave unrestricted, undisclosed access to law enforcement to dig throught their database until users started complaining and it became opt-in to allow LE access.
Fun fact, GEDmatch is now owned by Qiagen which operates in around 25 countries. I wonder how many DNA profiles they have access to. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve mapped the entire human species to some degree.
Wow guys, thanks a lot for the informative comments! I love how Lemmy isn’t just a minefield of memes and jokes in the comments like Reddit