In 2007, a company called 23andMe began offering customers a simple trade: Send in a sample of your saliva (and $99) and they would return details of your genetic makeup and ancestry. The product was so popular that it became Time Magazine’s “invention of the year” in 2008.
But now, 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy, and millions of people who sent in their DNA for analysis could be at risk of having their information put up for sale. Tech expert Omar Gallaga says the data the company collected is among its most valuable assets.
Highlights from this segment:
– 23andMe customers were willing to send the company a saliva sample in exchange for insight into where they had come from, and who they might be related to. The fad died down after a number of years.
– The data associated with 23andMe customers could be valuable to other companies that want to market to those customers.
– You can ask that your 23andMe data be deleted, but that won’t help if your information has already been used in research by the company.
