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Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

investors.23andme.com

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Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#201

Post by LatteLazy »

dvh wrote: post #175

There is absolutely no reason for these companies to collect your PII whatsoever. You should go to nearest pharmacy and buy sterile swab, swab yourself and write long random number on it and send it. Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote.

This fixes the issue with leaks. But it creates a much worse issue: anyone can now sequence anyone else's DNA with zero oversight or privacy controls.

The film Gattaca covers how this could lead to a sort of night are society pretty well, I highly recommend it.

It also makes it much much harder to use the data for clinical research.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#202

Post by kelnos »

soganess wrote: post #136
saghm wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused by this; isn't the board of directors who picks the CEO? Or are they locked in for some period of time and don't want to wait around?

I don't know the first thing wrt how 23andMe has its governance and voting setup, but the letter seems to imply the CEO has majority power or, at least, a large enough plurality that it is a one-person-show: > Because of that difference and because of your concentrated voting power, we believe that it is in the best interests of the Company’s shareholders that we resign EDIT: But that brings up a different question:…

> If you have majority voting power, why try to take the company private (as it has been suggested by others here)?

I don't know their governance structure, but the CEO may have a majority of votes, but not own a majority of the actual shares. Being able to take the company private would give her (and her other investors) full economic control as well as voting control.

This is risky ground, of course. Even with voting control, legally the CEO cannot screw over the minority shareholders.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#203

Post by appendix-rock »

Simon_ORourke wrote: post #171
bruceb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…

> leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Acknowledging Ancestry.com are well ahead of the market here, but I never got their appeal of finding some long-lost second cousins... basically strangers, and saying, "hey, isn't it fascinating that we share some arbitrary level of common genetic makeup". If some randomer reached out via email to me doing this big reveal I'd be "thanks, but into the s…

That’s a very glib HN take.

Interest in family trees predates Ancestry.com and will certainly outlast it. It’s not necessarily about contact. I’m not sure what’s controversial here.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#204

Post by Y_Y »

burningChrome wrote: post #154
LarsDu88 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the board is resigning, and the company is selling DNA kits, running a telemedicine operation, selling pharmceuticals online AND developing cancer drugs at a 180 million dollar market cap... It's quite possible there was no plan at all...

>>> selling pharmceuticals online That would explain them selling 5 million users DNA information to GSK. Earlier this summer, the often-scrutinized at-home genetic testing company 23andMe sold genetic data from five million customers to the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This surprised a lot of their customers who had forgotten that they consented to this when they signed up for the service. https://c…

https://investors.23andme.com/news-releases/news-release-det...

This is complicated. The don't just zip up all the customer data and send it over, at least they say that they run aggregated queries for GSK and just tell them the answer. But then they say that the data is "anonymized" before this, which seems unnecessary and impossible.

Imho it's very difficult to anonymize any data, and especially something like DNA. Without an external audit amd some mathematical guarantee (e.g. differntial privacy) I work on the assumption that they do the bare minimum to pass legal muster but anyone who made the effort could confidently associate the data with real people after the fact.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#205

Post by flanked-evergl »

CSDude wrote: post #139
marcell wrote: post #128

I used to work at 23andMe, AMA

did you have access to customer data

Just for some perspective from outside the US: I work at a bank in a country subject to GDPR. I have access to customer data, as do most people on my team.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#206

Post by Lionga »

breck wrote: post #15

For the record, 23andme is one of the few companies where the CEO never once responded to one of my emails (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024). You can make a lot of money just by betting on companies where the CEO (or the CEO's office) takes listening to customers'(who are rooting for them!) emails seriously, and shorting those that do not.

Hedge Fund Managers hate this one little trick to beat all of their research

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#207

Post by gizmondo »

LatteLazy wrote: post #201
dvh wrote: post #175

There is absolutely no reason for these companies to collect your PII whatsoever. You should go to nearest pharmacy and buy sterile swab, swab yourself and write long random number on it and send it. Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote.

This fixes the issue with leaks. But it creates a much worse issue: anyone can now sequence anyone else's DNA with zero oversight or privacy controls. The film Gattaca covers how this could lead to a sort of night are society pretty well, I highly recommend it. It also makes it much much harder to use the data for clinical research.

What prevents anyone from sequencing anyone else's DNA with the current system?

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#208

Post by RicoElectrico »

Simon_ORourke wrote: post #171
bruceb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…

> leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Acknowledging Ancestry.com are well ahead of the market here, but I never got their appeal of finding some long-lost second cousins... basically strangers, and saying, "hey, isn't it fascinating that we share some arbitrary level of common genetic makeup". If some randomer reached out via email to me doing this big reveal I'd be "thanks, but into the s…

Americans treat their ancestry (specifically the nations they come from) almost like zodiac signs. This is meme material (e.g. Plastic Paddies, Plywood Poles etc.)

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#209

Post by slavik81 »

Simon_ORourke wrote: post #171
bruceb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…

> leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Acknowledging Ancestry.com are well ahead of the market here, but I never got their appeal of finding some long-lost second cousins... basically strangers, and saying, "hey, isn't it fascinating that we share some arbitrary level of common genetic makeup". If some randomer reached out via email to me doing this big reveal I'd be "thanks, but into the s…

The family tree is a big deal for Mormons due to their religious beliefs. They can baptise their ancestors, providing lost souls with a chance to convert after death.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#210

Post by blitzar »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #30
nextos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the plan all the time to go B2B (drug development) and they just used B2C (selling SNP kits) to hoard samples? Even considering all FDA limitations, I cannot understand how bad their genetic risk scores are. They have talent, they have lots of customers and data. This is a position other companies, like deCODE, would have killed to be in.

If the board is resigning, and the company is selling DNA kits, running a telemedicine operation, selling pharmceuticals online AND developing cancer drugs at a 180 million dollar market cap... It's quite possible there was no plan at all...

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