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23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

cnbc.com

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Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#111

Post by Glyptodon »

endorphone wrote: post #72
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 as…

You may be technically correct, but the complaint is just a facet of the deeper (more real) issue: people want to own and control their data and they increasingly do not trust other parties. Even if 23&Me requires a warrant rather than a suppoena that's just nuance lost in a haze of "the customer is the product" exploitation that consumers hate yet feel forced to accept just like "click through" legalese.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#112

Post by Infinitesimus »

endorphone wrote: post #72
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 as…

> 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.

This confusion matters if the average customer is making decisions based on that info. It doesn't matter (yet?) that they require a warrant and are transparent. All that matters is that enough people believe 23andme will share personal data for sales to be affected

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#113

Post by inetknght »

rfc wrote: post #107
marcell wrote: post #95

They sold 10M kits, and they primarily market in the US. DNA never changes, so you have a lifetime max of 1 purchase of 23andMe per lifetime. Their competitors have likely sold 15-30M as well, so maybe 30-40M of these kits have been sold. That's 10% of US market. What's the max conceivable penetration here? 20%?

Your germ line genome rarely changes. Your exome changes all the time. Your gut biome changes all the time. There's massive market opportunity but a ton of regulations around how to tap into that market opportunity. On a separate note, Ancestry is going through a similar issue. They've had double digit revenue declines in their DNA testing suite. The truth around 23andMe and Ancestry is that they're really doing a su…

> Your exome changes all the time.

I work in DNA analysis (not for 23andme). Citation needed.

> Your gut biome changes all the time.

Your gut biome isn't being tested by a genetics company collecting your saliva or epithelial cells.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#114

Post by jacques_chester »

nradov wrote: post #92
jsgo wrote: post #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 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) specifically prohibits health insurance companies from denying coverage or setting rates based on such tests.

Legislation can be changed. Including retroactively.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#117

Post by rrego »

bobthepanda wrote: post #108
throwaway1777 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New people are being born all the time. There are many industries based around one time purchases. Think appendix removal or weddings (that one may be more than once for some people)

Gifting someone a thing that could be used as a paternity test at a baby shower would be more than a little rude. And presumably if both parents have already done it why would you need to test the baby?

It would be extraordinarily rude . But it's definitely not what the parent comment meant. :)

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#118

Post by neivin »

hbosch wrote: post #104

I didn’t buy a test, because my brother did. Why pay $100 to get the same story twice?

I didn't buy the test because all it would say would be "Congrats! You are 100% asian."

I feel like 23&me is literally only useful/interesting to white people because they can see which one of the 50 European countries they have ties to.

It's not that useful for me. I've had friends do it and get 99.97% Chinese or Indian.

Amazing, I could have told you that for free.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#119

Post by markdown »

nradov wrote: post #92
jsgo wrote: post #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 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) specifically prohibits health insurance companies from denying coverage or setting rates based on such tests.

Thank goodness for that. They definitely won't break that law. Nope. Corporations don't do that.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#120

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

endorphone wrote: post #72
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 as…

Sad news for you endorphone: you're a 100% match for a serial killer based on the limited analysis and shoddy lab work that contaminated your 23andme sample. Here's a court order requiring you to submit a new sample to us. We're also going to need your passport so cancel that vacation you had planned.
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