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Calif. AG issues stark warning to 15 million 23andMe users as bankruptcy looms: 'Delete your data'

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https://nypost.com/2025/03/23/us-news/calif-ag-issues-stark-warning-to-15-
million-23andme-users/

California’s attorney general has urgently warned customers of 23andMe to 
purge their genetic data from the company’s databases over uncertainty 
where it may end up if the firm goes bankrupt.

“Given 23andMe’s reported financial distress, I remind Californians to 
consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data 
and destroy any samples of genetic material held by the company,” AG Rob 
Bonta said in a statement Friday.

The company had been synonymous with at-home genetic testing for more than 
a decade, providing more than 15 million customers with a wide range of 
personal health and ancestry data.

Users would provide a saliva sample and mail it back to the company for 
detailed laboratory analysis at a cost of around $200.

For a time, the company was a runaway success, valued at $6 billion as 
recently as 2020.

Then it apparently tried to expand too fast into drug research and 
pharmaceutical partnerships, while a data breach created concerns about 
users’ information.

The bottom dropped out for the one-time Silicon Valley darling as its 
share price has cratered, and the firm is now in danger of collapsing.

The company’s share price hovered over $320 in February 2021 but has since 
slid to less than $2 per share.

Now thorny questions are being raised about the fate of millions of 
customers’ most sensitive data if the business goes belly-up. The firm 
experienced the data breach in 2023, which led to concerns over how well 
users’ information is safeguarded.

Under California’s Genetic Information Privacy Act, companies must obtain 
explicit consent for the collection, use and disclosure of any genetic 
data. The 2022 law also guarantees consumers the right to access or delete 
their data at will.

Bonta said customers can permanently delete their 23andMe data by logging 
into their account, accessing the “settings” menu and navigating to the 
data section.

Clicking “view” will give users access to the “delete data” section, where 
the option to “permanently delete data” will appear.

Going through this process will auto-generate an email from the company 
confirming the request — which users must click to verify before the data 
will be deleted, Bonta noted in his statement.

Conversation

WhatstheEndGame
11 hours ago

You can't delete your data. You can ask the system to delete, it won't but 
it will tell you it did.  Who knows how many copies there are. How many 
companies have already bought the data.

Wm Viets
12 hours ago

Of course, the Bankruptcy Code would allow 23 and Me to modify or cancel 
the obligations with regard to genetic information and materials.  


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Calif. AG issues stark warning to 15 million 23andMe users as bankruptcy looms: 'Delete your data' "Leroy N. Soetoro" <democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov> - 2025-03-26 18:16 +0000

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