{"id":176154,"date":"2025-06-11T16:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176154\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:49:12","slug":"23andme-says-15-of-customers-asked-to-delete-their-genetic-data-since-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176154\/","title":{"rendered":"23andMe says 15% of customers asked to delete their genetic data since bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">23andMe\u2019s interim chief executive Joseph Selsavage told lawmakers on Tuesday that 1.9 million people, or about 15% of its customer base, have requested their genetic data be deleted from the company\u2019s servers since <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/23\/dna-testing-company-23andme-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-ceo-resigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">it filed for bankruptcy protection in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Selsavage was speaking at <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/hearing\/securing-americans-genetic-information-privacy-and-national-security-concerns-surrounding-23andmes-bankruptcy-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a House Oversight Committee hearing<\/a>, during which lawmakers scrutinized the company\u2019s sale following an earlier bankruptcy auction. The bankruptcy sparked concerns that the data of millions of Americans who used 23andMe <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/24\/23andme-faces-an-uncertain-future-so-does-your-genetic-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">could end up in the hands of an unscrupulous buyer<\/a>, prompting customers to ask the company to delete their data.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pharmaceutical giant Regeneron won the court-approved auction in May, offering <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/05\/19\/pharma-giant-regeneron-to-buy-23andme-and-its-customers-data-for-256m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$256 million for 23andMe<\/a> and its banks of customers\u2019 DNA and genetic data. Regeneron said it would use the 23andMe data to aid the discovery of new drugs, and committed to maintain 23andMe\u2019s privacy practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A federal bankruptcy court is expected to consider Regeneron\u2019s bid for 23andMe later in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">23andMe\u2019s bankruptcy comes a year after it experienced <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/12\/04\/23andme-confirms-hackers-stole-ancestry-data-on-6-9-million-users\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a months-long data breach that exposed 6.9 million customers\u2019 sensitive personal and genetics data<\/a>. The company blamed the data breach on its customers for not using multi-factor authentication, rather than acknowledging its own failure to secure customers\u2019 accounts, or its inability to detect the breach until months later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also on Tuesday, more than two dozen states, including Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, <a href=\"https:\/\/ag.ny.gov\/press-release\/2025\/attorney-general-james-sues-23andme-protect-new-yorkers-genetic-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">sued 23andMe to challenge the sale<\/a> of its customers\u2019 private data. The states argue that the company cannot sell the data of its 15 million customers without their explicit permission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TechCrunch has a short guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/25\/23andme-files-for-bankruptcy-how-to-delete-your-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">how to delete your 23andMe data<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"23andMe\u2019s interim chief executive Joseph Selsavage told lawmakers on Tuesday that 1.9 million people, or about 15% of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[21326,54885,3457,55682,8747,267,5489,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-176154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-23andme","9":"tag-cyberattack","10":"tag-cybersecurity","11":"tag-data-breach","12":"tag-genetic-testing","13":"tag-genetics","14":"tag-pharmaceuticals","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114665761176011058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}