NEW YORK – The DNA of 15 million people was sold after 23andMe filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by pharmaceutical giant Regeneron. Concerns about the use of this genetic data have prompted New York Attorney General Letitia James and 27 other attorneys general to file a lawsuit.
23andMe told customers that their DNA was safe. The company had promises in large print that “your privacy comes first” and assured customers that their genetic data would not be shared.
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, expressed concern about the potential misuse of the data. “They can use that information to target consumers with specific drugs that they might want them to take,” said JB Branch, Big Tech Accountability Advocate at Public Citizen. “They’ll be able to take that DNA data to develop new drugs that they might use at a later point without your consent.”
The lawsuit argues that the genetic data should not have been sold to the highest bidder. It claims that “the customer’s genome could remain in existence in corporate hands and be used for purposes ranging from research to cloning long after future generations of 23andMe’s consumers have passed away.”
“You know 23andMe and Regeneron may be saying it’s just this small population of consumers, but it’s not,” said Branch. “It’s much broader than that because it impacts just about anyone in your family tree.”
23andMe customers were given the chance to delete their data before the sale, but the website repeatedly crashed due to high traffic.
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