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23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

reuters.com

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Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#101

Post by sofixa »

whyenot wrote: post #79
kibibu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's always seemed completely insane to me that people signed up for these services. Possible Pros: You find out you are 20% Norwegian! Fun! Possible Cons: Grandma is going to prison for an unsolved crime. Assume a non-threatening position and comply with all orders of the new Department of Racial Purity. Also, that's not your real Dad.

> Possible Pros: You find out you are 20% Norwegian! Fun! It's kind of irritating the way you are minimizing the "pros" here (and you aren't the only one at HN who has done this recently). There are people who found their parents and siblings thanks to 23 and Me. I found my father and my half sister. Maybe it's not important to you, but there are people out there who are willing to "pay" a lot to find out who they ar…

You aren't your sperm donor, or your grandmother.

You are who you are, based on the genetics you got from all of them, and importantly, all the nurture you've received and learning you've done since that moment.

Reconnecting with lost siblings is a legitimate thing one can want and which can bring closure, etc etc but definitely doesn't have anything to do with who you are.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#102

Post by fc417fc802 »

rendall wrote: post #37

For what it's worth, this is on their Data page: > What happens to my data if the company is sold or otherwise changes ownership? > If the company does change ownership in the future, your data will remain protected under the current 23andMe Privacy Policy unless and until you are presented with materially new terms, with appropriate advanced notice to review those material changes as required by law. https://you.23a…

Advanced notice to review the changes ... but can you reject them? I've yet to be presented with the option to reject a change to a privacy policy or ToS.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#103

Post by muti »

Quekid5 wrote: post #59
Unroasted6154 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It possible with crypto shredding. You store everything encrypted with one key by customer. When you want to delete you erase the key. The data becomes unusable everywhere (backups included). Then a job periodically garbage collects data without a key, but that's more for cost saving. Big companies do this but it requires some technical maturity. If you operate in Europe you have to implement proper data deletion. I…

You still have to backup those keys somewhere... and if you don't do it the same way as for the data then your backups are effectively worthless.

Much less data to back up so it can be stored in a way that is replicated for redundancy but still mutable. Separating the key and data is what allows for sending data to tape backup etc

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#104

Post by flockonus »

xyst wrote: post #84
LarsDu88 wrote: post #8

Damn, on Friday, the California DoJ Attorney General issued a warning to consumers about their data: https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bont... This should've been a giveaway that the company was imminently going to go under.

Given such a late warning, is there any staff left to do the data deletion requests before it heads off into bankruptcy courts

Either way, for the company customers under this circumstance I'd absolutely recommend sending all possible means of requesting data deletion, at least there should be a paper trail that such thing was requested.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#105

Post by fc417fc802 »

davely wrote: post #50
bhaney wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I discovered I had around 20 half-siblings I never knew about and got connected with most of them. > Also, that's not your real Dad Yeah, that part was less fun

I just commented about the same exact thing relating to my wife. Even down to 20+ siblings! Like, it’s so common that I’m not even shocked to hear others with this experience. As it turns out, there were a lot of sketchy clinics preying upon desperate parents in the early 1980s.

Why do you say they were preying on them? The donor either matched the stated criteria or didn't.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#106

Post by benjaminwootton »

jart wrote: post #29
kibibu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's always seemed completely insane to me that people signed up for these services. Possible Pros: You find out you are 20% Norwegian! Fun! Possible Cons: Grandma is going to prison for an unsolved crime. Assume a non-threatening position and comply with all orders of the new Department of Racial Purity. Also, that's not your real Dad.

A lot of us trusted and supported her because she was married to Sergey. No one was expecting that once she had the data she'd divorce him and go full Marissa Mayer.

When I saw the headline, I wondered why Sergey hadn't bought it for his spare change. I guess this is why.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#107

Post by midtake »

ks2048 wrote: post #35

There are troubling privacy issues, but it was able to tell me: "Toe Length Ratio : Likely second toe longer". I didn't even have to look down! Maybe it was a bad idea. But, I figured if we enter a dystopian future, evil health care companies or governments could easily get my DNA if they want to and/or simply require that information to get care. When you get blood drawn, do you see what they do with it? Hopefully,…

> But, I figured if we enter a dystopian future, evil health care companies or governments could easily get my DNA if they want to and/or simply require that information to get care.

Yes, because you gave it to them. Nihilism undermines any sort of resistance movement against evil.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#108

Post by TeMPOraL »

goosejuice wrote: post #65
silisili wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absurd to me how soft deletion took over the entire industry and 'DELETE FROM' became taboo.

For every customer that legitimately wants their data deleted there's a hundred that complain their data is gone after confirming deletion. The same customers that mark your transactional email as spam then complain about not being able to get into their account. Exaggerating here, but I do think soft deletion practices can be partially blamed on real business problems. I'm not sure why anyone would think that using…

> The same customers that mark your transactional email as spam then complain about not being able to get into their account.

That's on you though - shouldn't have sent spam pretending to be transactional email.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#109

Post by merb »

eightman wrote: post #98
linotype wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So rather than $8 a share they get zero? Sounds like the board was the one that messed things up.

I assume the value of the remaining assets are worth more than $8/share and she was trying to get them for a discount.

Shares are only worth what somebody wants to pay for them. Selling a ton of shares also often devalues them. Since the company was losing money, it was clear that the shares would drop.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#110

Post by greggsy »

alexfromapex wrote: post #5

Already downloaded and deleted my data. It’s so wild that some new buyer could just buy peoples’ genetic data at a fire sale.

Interested to know whether the collection statements can persist, or if they can just send a generic ‘we’ve updated our privacy policy’ email.
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