Health
23andMe’s Bankruptcy Puts 15 Million Users’ DNA Info on Auction Block
23andMe has proposed a May 14 auction for the sale of its assets, which include the genetic data of more than 15 million customers.
Photographer: Cayce Clifford/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Millions of Americans who sent their saliva to 23andMe in the hopes of finding lost relatives or identifying health risks buried in their DNA now face seeing their genetic information sold to the highest bidder as part of the company’s bankruptcy, setting up a test of existing legal safeguards around privacy and safety.
23andMe has proposed a May 14 auction for the sale of its assets, which include the genetic data of more than 15 million customers. Founded in 2006, 23andMe said in court papers that the data represents “one of the world’s largest crowdsourced platforms for genetic research.”