How to request the deletion of your data from 23andMe
The future of 23andMe is up in the air as its founder considers a takeover, raising concerns for customers about their genetic data stored by the company.
Consumers turn over a lot of private data to use the services of companies, but none is more personal than that given to companies like 23andMe. Concerns over the safety of the genetic data held by the consumer DNA testing company have been raised as the future of 23andMe is in question.
CEO and founder Anne Wojcicki has said that she plans to take the company private which has struggled to become profitable after going public in 2021. All seven members of the independent board resigned in September over Wojcicki’s concentrated voting power and conflicting views over the future of the company. On top of that, the company recently settled a data breach lawsuit for $30 million after hackers accessed the information of 6.9 million customers.
How to request the deletion of your data from 23andMe
Customers can delete their account with 23andMe at any time. However, once you confirm your request, the “process cannot be canceled, undone, withdrawn or reversed,” the company warns. After you confirm the deletion process, it will begin automatically and you will lose access to your account. If you have asked the company to hold on to any of your samples, they will be safely destroyed.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Log into your account
- Go to Account Settings
- Scroll to the section titled 23andMe Data and select View
- You are advised to download any personal information
- Scroll to the bottom and select delete data permanently
- Once submitted, you should receive an email to confirm your request
- After you confirm your request, the deletion process will begin
What are the risks to your data held by 23andMe?
23andMe processes and analyzes saliva samples that customers send to the company, and then gives them back a personalized genetic report. These provide information about the person’s health risks and their ancestry.
The company does not share this private information with third parties without customers’ consent. Its privacy page states that since 2008, “individual data has never been released to law enforcement and will only be shared if required by a valid legal process.” As well, 23andMe touts the “strength of its security” and that it provides customers with “robust controls” over their genetic data.
However, even so, privacy campaigners are 23andMe customers to delete their data taking into account potential future threats to their privacy. Activism director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, Jason Kelley, told CBS News that there are laws in place that protect individuals from insurance companies using their genetic data to discriminate against them, but that the danger lies in “a more nefarious third party.”
“The concern is not about what people could find out today, but in the future. Having access to this kind of information could give someone an enormous amount of intelligence about groups of people and potentially individuals. And there’s a sort of dystopian nightmare scenario where that kind of data can be tied back to individuals, or leaked to the internet,” Kelly told the outlet.