23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

This was way more appealing to me when they were able to provide (probably spurious) medical predictions, and before it was clear that the ancient ancestry assessments were so much guesswork.

The cost of sequencing keeps rapidly halving, but the price of kits isn't really dropping, so over time it seems like less and less of a good value.

They're clearly spending on social features and development, which is understandable, but it'd be interesting to see an alternate universe firm just dedicated to making sequencing as accessible a commodity as possible--send in butterflies or dog hair or sushi and we'll send you a genome.

Might create interesting opportunities for amateur biology, similar to how popular amateur astronomy has become with home telescopes and ability to search Hubble images and such.

That’s what happens when bad press about your company comes out, and you’re too clueless to recognize it.

Why do I really care about other people with similar genetics to me?

This seems to be a greater risk for me, if I put myself into that database.

And if someone else has a similar genetic as mine, and they commit a crime, then I’m automatically roped in as well. Do I really want the police knocking down my door, and slamming me to the ground, while they barge into my house with assault rifles and ballistic protection gear, and pointing their guns at every member of my family. This is a case of mistaken identity. But their m.o. is to shoot first, and ask questions later. No thanks!

This is the Law of Unintended Consequences at play here.

And for all the talk about cross linking your genome with others to find markers to get clues on how to cure diseases, well, I never really bought into that.

It may help, but I really don’t care. The disease problem will need to be solved in another way, that doesn’t involve the compromise of my security, however remote it may be.

I think most ordinary consumers like your mom and dad don't care about privacy.

I know at least two DNA companies that send your data to China for processing and yet nobody cares.

So it may not be the reason of 23andme's problems - it might be just that the market is saturated. People who wanted to take the test, like me, already did it.

That shows it's enough to establish probable cause, but once they'd identified him, they got a direct DNA match, which means he won't be a test of the ancestral scenario outlined in the GP.

ah, here we go. The notoriously flawed "I'm doing nothing wrong and I have nothing to hide" argument.

There are so many reasons why this is wrong and it is a pretty well known philosophical stance. A couple reasons:

- You assume that the government is acting for your best interest. What would happen if we elect a crazy president that changes the direction of the country? (Think WW2 Germany with their eugenics). - You are not doing anything wrong but don't you have information that you want to keep private? Getting an STD for example is not illegal but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like that medical information available after a search with your name on Google.