I would have presumed that security-minded people, which includes those who work in tech, would not so easily give away their genome, and that most of 23andMe's customers are a slice of the general population. But then I read about things like WorldCoin and that people who go to startup parties jump at the chance to give away scans of their retinas and I'm befuddled. Why would anyone willingly do that?
23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
21–30 of 402 posts
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#22Automatically opting-in customers to a more restrictive TOS is pretty suspect, especially given the timing. IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that a court would not allow that, given that the TOS was changed AFTER the breach and it's pretty clear that the company is trying to avoid legal issues after-the-fact. I would expect the court would evaluate any breach under the TOS that was in effect at the time of the breach, rath…
And just because a TOS says something doesn't mean it will necessarily hold up in court. They aren't law.
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#23The article doesn't add anything new from previous discussion, 23andMe updates their TOS to force binding arbitration ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38551890 ) - (372 points | 6 days ago | 243 comments) One interesting thing about this story though is that it appears that 23andMe is outright refusing to make a comment to anyone. Every single site that has covered the story and bothered to email them have adde…
Yes, from the perspective of any user/consumer of the service. But since they are facing litigation, any lawyer will tell you that keeping your mouth shut until the action is adjudicated is THE best course of action, regardless of what some politicians and corporations may do these days.
The only other thing that they could say would be "We do not comment on matters involving pending litigation." But that's just a longer way of saying "No comment." It's not any more satisfying for the customers or partners understandably seeking answers to what happened, how, and why.
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#24Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#25To duck out of the new ToS, just write this email to legal@23andme.com-- To Whom It May Concern: My name is [name], and my 23andMe account is under the email [email]. I am writing to declare that I do not agree to the new terms of service at https://www.23andme.com/legal/terms-of-service/ .
I don't give Facebook permission to use my pictures, my information or my publications, both of the past and the future, mine or those where I show up. By this statement, I give my notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, give, sell my information, photos or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and c…
Those notices are bullshit, but https://www.23andme.com/legal/terms-of-service/#dispute-reso... says emailing an opt-out is correct in this case.
> 30 Day Right to Opt-Out. You have the right to opt-out and not be bound by the arbitration and class action waiver provisions set forth above by sending written notice of your decision to opt-out by emailing us at arbitrationoptout@23andme.com. The notice must be sent within thirty (30) days of your first use of the Service, or the effective date of the first set of Terms containing an Arbitration and Class Action and Class Arbitration Waiver section otherwise you shall be bound to arbitrate disputes in accordance with the terms of those sections. If you opt out of these arbitration provisions, we also will not be bound by them.
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#26To duck out of the new ToS, just write this email to legal@23andme.com-- To Whom It May Concern: My name is [name], and my 23andMe account is under the email [email]. I am writing to declare that I do not agree to the new terms of service at https://www.23andme.com/legal/terms-of-service/ .
I don't give Facebook permission to use my pictures, my information or my publications, both of the past and the future, mine or those where I show up. By this statement, I give my notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, give, sell my information, photos or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and c…
The difference here being that 23 and me has communicated a specific opt-out process. This isn’t some sovereign citizen nonsense the person you’re replying to came up with on their own. It’s the official method you’re suppose to use.
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#27I would have presumed that security-minded people, which includes those who work in tech, would not so easily give away their genome, and that most of 23andMe's customers are a slice of the general population. But then I read about things like WorldCoin and that people who go to startup parties jump at the chance to give away scans of their retinas and I'm befuddled. Why would anyone willingly do that?
I am a security engineer. When I signed up for 23andme, I assumed with certainty that it would be hacked and all data leaked at some point. I balanced that with the value of knowing potentially important health/genetic bio markers.
In the end, I valued knowing these bio markers above the privacy of my genome. The former is actionable and I can use it to optimize my health and longevity; the latter is of vague value and not terribly exploitable outside of edge-case threat models.
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#28Thanks for sharing. Will def opt out and roll into the class action suits already filed. Take security seriously people. Especially when dealing with super sensitive data.
Why did you send them your DNA? It was pretty obvious from day 1 that sending some random startup on the internet my DNA was a bad move.
Fear of the unknown about your own body. Think of how many people would sign up if you sold a service that scoured secret files to "find out what people are saying about you". Forget whether such a service could ever work, just the combination of "unknown" + "about you" is irresistible to a large segment of the population. It's the mother-of-all-clickbait.
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Email is arbitrationoptout@23andme.com
The email I got from 23andMe linked me to legal@23andme.com.
Deeper in it has the other one.
I also set my future status to auto opt-out.
“I opt out of the updated terms and will stick to the current in place ones indefinitely, including any future changes. I declare myself immune from having to do anything like this again in the future and set my status to auto-opt-out.”
Re: 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
#30Automatically opting-in customers to a more restrictive TOS is pretty suspect, especially given the timing. IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that a court would not allow that, given that the TOS was changed AFTER the breach and it's pretty clear that the company is trying to avoid legal issues after-the-fact. I would expect the court would evaluate any breach under the TOS that was in effect at the time of the breach, rath…
Federal Arbitration Act severely, and nearly completely, ties courts hands around throwing out binding arbitrations.
Of course, if people don’t accept the new terms, they are still bound by the one ones. But if you don’t opt out…