Anyone who shared their DNA with 23andMe needs to delete their data from the genetic information service before the company is sold to the highest bidder ... so says a tech columnist sounding the alarm on future consequences.
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00:00I'm panicked, but I'm not sure why I'm panicked and what information is it that compromises
00:08everybody.
00:09Your DNA is something you're stuck with for the rest of your life.
00:12It's not like a password that you can change.
00:14And so you need to protect it.
00:16So my advice to you and to everybody else out there, whoever did 23andMe is go in and
00:21tell them to delete it now.
00:23I get it.
00:24They got my DNA.
00:25I mean, it's not like my social security number.
00:27So what are they going to do with that information of knowing my DNA and my ancestry that would
00:35cause me to lose sleep?
00:36I would argue it's worse than getting your social security number, because your DNA is
00:41already here in 2025, the key to so much about who you are as a person.
00:46So first of all, it contains information about your ancestry.
00:49It contains information about your family tree, famously.
00:53It can be used to determine what are called non-fraternity events within a family lineage
00:58when somebody claims they are a dad and maybe they're not biologically, really.
01:03But even more scary, I think, for all of us is that it contains clues about your health,
01:11your likelihood to have certain conditions, certain kinds of diseases.
01:14And you know who would like to have that information?
01:17Insurance companies.
01:18And then maybe they could use that to figure out how to charge people different amounts
01:23based on their DNA.
01:24Or deny them coverage.
01:25Yeah.
01:26So, I mean, but here's what really scares me is that's all that we can sort of imagine
01:30here in 2025.
01:32But imagine 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when the science has advanced further,
01:38what will we be able to learn from DNA then?
01:41So this is often a problem with data, right?
01:44Like in the moment you think, oh, well, what's so bad about that?
01:47What are they going to do with this?
01:49But it catches up with you.
01:50And the more data you got out there, the more problems you're going to face later in life.
01:54You talk to attorneys general from around the country who are working on or already
01:58have passed legislation on this.
02:00How does that help people?
02:01Yeah.
02:02You know what?
02:03There's a tiny bit of good news here for ordinary consumers.
02:06As we all know, the federal government has been doing nothing to help us and our privacy
02:11over the last couple of years.
02:13But the states have been active.
02:15And California and about 20 other states now have laws on the books that say that any
02:21company that collects your data has to give you the right to delete it.
02:25So when you go into that 23andMe website, you log in, you ask them to delete it.
02:29Legally, they have to do that.
02:31And if they don't, there's real consequences for them.
02:34Everybody talks about this where, yeah, we'll delete it.
02:36But somehow it's still accessible, like when you think you destroy a computer and it's
02:42not really destroyed and they can access things later.
02:46That's not going to happen here.
02:47They really do 86 the whole thing.
02:49It's so funny.
02:50You ask that question.
02:51Literally, before I got on camera, I was messaging with the people in the California government
02:55whose job it is to make sure that they actually delete it and to go after them if they don't.
03:01They're working on it.
03:02We also know that some state attorney generals, I heard from the attorney general of Connecticut
03:06yesterday saying that they were launching an investigation.
03:09Trust me, this is a very high profile moment.
03:13And so, you know, it does take some faith in our elected leaders and institutions.
03:18But this is one case where I think the right thing is probably going to happen.
03:22And if it doesn't, we're going to hear about it in a big, explosive way.