23andme, the company that has become a mail self -testing sets synonymous with the DNA test, is Discussing banking Amid the slowdown of sales after four years of the year. Ann Wagiki, who participated in the founding of 23andme in 2006, stepped down as CEO While the company tries to find a buyer.
In January, He said 23andme She was exploring the sale options amid slowing demand for its product and the repercussions of the main data breach in 2023. In 2024, the company agreed to a financial settlement, which affected 6.9 million users. The company also announced the layoff of About 40 % of the workforce in late 2024. Recently, the company’s shares It decreased under the dollarIt is at risk of being exposed to the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.
in Note to customersThe company said that there is nothing that is currently changing about the way it is stored, managed or protects customer data and that the company is still open to business and the sale of DNA groups. “Through this process, we will seek to find a partner who shares our commitment to the customer’s data and allows our mission to help people reach the human genome and benefit from it to live in it,” the company said in its post.
At its peak, 23ndme has become the most known name in the emerging self -testing field, with users paid $ 99 for groups that gave them an insight into their genetic composition, potential and original relatives. But the company’s momentum slowed in recent years after its general offer of $ 3.5 billion in 2021.
People who used 23andme and are concerned about what may happen for their data in a sale process have options: they can download their information and then delete their account, as well as ask the company to ignore their DNA materials in addition to deleting data. Doing this will use DNA information in future research, but it cannot be removed from the research that has been already done.
“Take your data from there”
Arthur Kaplanhead Department of Medical Ethics At Grossman Medical College at New York University, 23andme criticism for decades. He said he was not surprised by the advertisement, After you predicted it in January.
“They were more interested in obtaining data, saliva, to resell it,” Kaplan told CNET. “It was marketed and received as a kind of pleasant amateur. But this was not the goal that he gave billions of dollars of the value that was once.”
Kaplan said that the company’s business model promised information about the assets it is believed to be unreliable at first.
“I don’t think the flag was very good,” he said, adding with the sale of the company, there is no legal commitment to ensure the customer’s privacy under another owner.
Kaplan said the risks is that data can be used in ways that people who gave their saliva can expect.
“DNA information is very sensitive – it can tell you things about paternity, it can lead to government agencies come after you did not think,” he said. “The genetic data of the advertisement can be used or shopping for you. The third party can decide that you are not qualified to insurance.
“My advice is to take out your data from there. I will not leave it there and it may be too late.”