Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 458 posts

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

#291

Post by riversflow »

prepend wrote: post #277

I did this almost 8 years ago for the health insights and recommended it to a few dozen friends and family because the UI was nice, they added new reports, and they were the only low cost provider at the time that let me export my data. I loved the service and found an unknown sibling through the site. The FDA made them remove health insights so that made the service less useful. But two years ago they started sellin…

I’m curious for the reasoning behind why selling the data to big pharma is a bad thing? I was thrilled to hear about that personally as I am very supportive of large pools of genetic data being harnessed for drug research. Big pharma has big money and lots of smart folks, if they can leverage 23&me’s data to create better drugs or find the root cause behind diseases, it seems like a win to me.

That said, I hope that we pass stronger laws protecting genetic data from being used for any type of insurance. Genetics =/= genetic expression, and the law should reflect that.

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

#292

Post by war1025 »

cstejerean wrote: post #201
war1025 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen them push that as a marketing angle. As a 23andMe customer from a couple years ago, it never even occured to me to try re-running the results.

They do, it depends how far back you signed up I guess. I did this many years ago, around the time they first launched and I got constant reminders that this or that new information is not available for me unless I upgrade to their latest chip. I think once I was able to upgrade by having them rerun the first sample I submitted, but at this point I think I’d have to send a new sample in if I remember the message corr…

Honestly the most interesting thing in the whole result to me was the "Number of Neanderthal markers" thing.

All in all, probably not hugely worth the expense. But I guess the novelty of it was fun.

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

#293

Post by bsanr2 »

cubano wrote: post #245
JohnFen wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The group that you have some sort of actual say in how they operate. That usually means the government, not a private business.

I would say that statistically, over a large sample size, that the chances that either would abuse information is exactly equal.

You would be wrong. And in the unlikely case that you're right, you can organize and/or vote to do something about it.

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

#294

Post by jjeaff »

prepend wrote: post #281
testplzignore wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not correct and in fact is the exact opposite. By default, they destroy the sample after analyzing it.

Not anymore, their new kits retain the sample for additional testing in the future.

Not sure if it has changed, but I was given the choice for them to keep or destroy the sample.

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

#295

Post by remmargorp64 »

I regret doing my 23andMe testing. I stopped trusting them when I realized how easy it would be for bad actors to abuse the system. I wish I could take it back and have them destroy the records and DNA sample but they literally won't let people do that (for some completely bullshit "legal" reason that makes no sense and is clearly a lie).

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

#296

Post by jjeaff »

phkahler wrote: post #265
jellicle wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After account closure: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain your genetic information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional Code Section 1265, and College of American Pathologists (CAP) accreditation requirements. 23andMe wi…

>> date of birth, and sex That's enough to identify people in some zipcodes.

I'm pretty sure I didn't give them my birthdate. I also didn't give them my full name. If birthdate is required, I would have given a fake one.

I don't see any reason to give them your exact birthdate.

They could obviously dig into the billing data and get my info, but at least it's not right there together.

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

#297

Post by jjeaff »

joejerryronnie wrote: post #141
haihaibye wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already have 1/2 of your kids DNA.

Sure, but the other half could be Martian or Roman God DNA and they'd never know!

Nah, half is plenty to identify someone. If one of your kids sent in a sample today with a fake name, it would pair you up immediately and identify that they are your children.

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

#298

Post by jjeaff »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #186
ab_testing wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your kids were born in the United States,the states already has their genetic information. https://www.babysfirsttest.org/newborn-screening/states

I trust the government more than a for profit corp for this.

Did you know most DMVs are selling your data to private companies?

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

#299

Post by glennpratt »

cookiecaper wrote: post #252
JshWright wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joseph DeAngelo was caught because one of his relatives did a 23andMe style test.

Yeah, this isn't science fiction or conspiracy theory anymore. Several high-profile cold cases have gone hot as police have been trawling the datasets submitted to 23AndMe et al and investigating the family trees of persons whose DNA is similar-ish to the samples in unsolved cases. [0] The results are mainly bupkis anyway, and you're paying for the privilege of having police agencies across the country (world?) give…

It's all tradeoffs, I want some privacy, but I also like crimes being solved. In fact, I'd see that as a benefit even if I'm related to criminals. Of course this assumes it is used correctly and fairly, which is the hard part.

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

#300

Post by jjeaff »

bsanr2 wrote: post #293
cubano wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that statistically, over a large sample size, that the chances that either would abuse information is exactly equal.

You would be wrong. And in the unlikely case that you're right, you can organize and/or vote to do something about it.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjekz/the-california-dmv...

That's just one small example.

Post reply on HN