This isn't their first round of large layoffs.
23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
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Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#72> Wojcicki has theories, but she doesn’t have clear proof for why consumers are shying away from getting tests Because the ones that want them have gotten them and there's no reason to ever buy the product again once you've done it once. I mean, smartphones are great, but the market for them would have hit a wall pretty quickly if no one ever had a reason to replace them after buying their first.
Not just that, but when you read about them, they pretty much host their data on law enforcement hardware. Not that I think the Golden State Killer should be on the lam, but it's kind of concerning that a person with whom you share a great-grandparent with can put you in a police dragnet.
This keeps coming up by people who are seemingly confusing 23andme with GedMatch. They are very different platforms, and even the latter has greatly changed their law enforcement policies.
23andme requires a warrant. They publish a transparency report and since 2015 they've gotten a grand total of 7.
Having said that, if my DNA catches a distant relative who commits severe crimes, that hardly discourages me.
As an aside, what's with the bizarre moderation of HN lately? The circle of users allowed to downvote has gotten perhaps a little too big as the utilization for noting "this does not conform with my biases" has turned absolutely Reddit-like.
The parent post is wrong about 23andme -- it doesn't matter if you like the company or not, their point is wrong -- and the notion that you're caught up in a "dragnet" because of a far off ancestor committed a crime implies that you think the people who do genetic ancestry are idiots.
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, there's the fact that companies like this also provide your data to DNA databases that governments and other companies have access too. That seems like a good reason to shy away from getting their tests done.
Yeah, who know's what happens to the data after it leaves you. I know I seen on the news the military was advising against it, I guess if your DNA was leaked in a data breach someone could create viruses that target specific people, sounds far fetched like out of a science fiction movie though so not sure how realistic but I guess in theory it could happen. But ironically, many states like California collect newborn…
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Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#74I just wonder what happens to everyone's DNA data as the company faces financial trouble and/or sells itself. That's in addition to any concerns about possible security breaches that might occur.
Which contributes to why sales declined. Enough people have had their awkward family gatherings after trying to have fun with a novelty gift. Enough people have watched others mess up otherwise cohesive family structures over what was supposed to be a novelty toy. Enough people have watched the availability for genetic information to go to law enforcement. And that maybe they don't need your specific information to u…
Interestingly it also got Elizabeth Warren in hot water and accused of normalizing race science by interpreting her test as proof of ethnicity.
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
That isn't really true though. You aren't some kind of clone of your parents. Imagine that both of your parents sit down at a table. Each one has 100 dominoes in front of them. Each parent will randomly take 50 of their dominoes and put them in the center of the table. Those are your 100 dominoes. It could be that your mother has 20 "scottish" dominoes, but not a single one of those dominoes are in the set given to y…
With 23 pairs of chromosomes we have 46 dominoes each (ignoring recombination.) This changes the odds of inheriting none of your mother's Scottish dominoes from 1 in a million (2^20) to 1 in 512 (2^9).
> This changes the odds of inheriting none of your mother's Scottish dominoes from 1 in a million (2^20) to 1 in 512 (2^9).
That may be true for mom, but conservatively, there's between a 1-in-100 and 1-in-20 odds of inheriting none of your father's dominoes.
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#76The genetic predisposition stuff has been underwhelming. I'm going to just make up an example, so keep in mind that I openly told you this is made up. Basically they put things in alarming terms. For example, after clicking through some confirmations that you are OK with learning the information, you might encounter things like: "You have an elevated predisposition to Snooferitis, with a 50% higher risk than average." And 50% sounds really scary, the way they put it. Then when you drill into it you see that the general population has a 0.2% risk of developing Snooferitis, and your risk is 0.3%, so that is, wow, elevated.
ymmv. There are definitely cases where things are more cut and dry (and possibly very not good) and sometimes the click-through confirmations about wanting to learn the information are seriously justified. But a lot of the elevated risk information just feels like fluff.
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#77This is a functionality that no one asked for. Why does one need them? Let me ask an extreme question, how different is this from me naming a star after someone for their birthday? I go to some site and print out a certificate that that particular star in a given galaxy is now named Michael. Point is its a novelty thing. If a doctor asks me to get it done for a medical reason, sure. Other wise this is just a curiosit…
> this is just a curiosity with no use
Small sample size, but I was adopted and didn't know my genetic background or have any family medical history. When I've been ill I hadn't been able to provide that medical information when the doctors requested it.
Thanks to 23andMe I not only know a lot more about myself, but I also found my biological parents who are married to each other and wonderful, and who have two twin sons. So suddenly I have a second set of parents, two full brothers, and three more nieces and nephews and they're all incredibly welcoming, great people who I visit often.
So I'm very happy that 23andMe exists.
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
With 23 pairs of chromosomes we have 46 dominoes each (ignoring recombination.) This changes the odds of inheriting none of your mother's Scottish dominoes from 1 in a million (2^20) to 1 in 512 (2^9).
Right, but unless you get your own results you have no idea how the dice rolled for you (how many other game metaphors can I use?).
What if I don't give a shit about being "20% scottish" and only care about relatives-I-didn't-know-I-had and genetically-heritable-illnesses and my parents' reports were clean?
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#79> Wojcicki has theories
Think the obvious one is that the results are shared and whether someone is a criminal or not (or will be one in the future), people are not particularly comfortable with sharing to parties they didn't initially trust it to for the purposes they trusted it for.
Anecdotally, I bought a 23andme kit (just the genealogy one) but never submitted it because the labeling was to send it to the lab in the next town that manages the company I work for's drug screenings. Well, I don't think I have any pre-existing conditions and certainly don't do drugs, but I don't know about any unknowns on the health side that could impact my insurance if they were to share it to the company. Forget that.
Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline
#8023andme testing is one and done. Once you've had it you will never spend a dime with them. It's a red flag for any investor.