23andMe
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Lawsuit says 23andMe hackers targeted users with Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage
A lawsuit accuses 23andMe of failing to notify customers that they were specifically targeted for having Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
23andMe's data hack went unnoticed for months
The 23andMe hacks started in late April 2023 and went on for months before the company discovered the data breach.
23andMe frantically changed its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing
In an email sent to customers earlier this week viewed by Engadget, the company announced that it had made updates to the “Dispute Resolution and Arbitration section” of its terms of service that would prevent customers from filing class action lawsuits.
23andMe hack now estimated to affect over half of customers
A hack that affected 23andMe back in October is estimated to have exposed significantly more profiles than previously reported.
23andMe hackers accessed ancestry information on millions of customers using a feature that matches relatives
Biotech company 23andMe first disclosed a data breach affecting a portion of its customers back in October. The information was obtained in a credential stuffing attack. An SEC filing now reveals roughly 14,000 accounts were accessed, along with information on millions of users participating in the DNA Relatives feature.
23andMe user data breached in credential-stuffing attack
23andMe user data is circulating on hacker forums. The company confirmed the leak occurred through a credential-stuffing attack, according to BleepingComputer.
Hitting the Books: How can privacy survive in a world that never forgets?
In his new book, Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI, world-leading AI researcher, Dr. Toby Walsh, explores the duality of potential that artificial intelligence/machine learning systems offer.
23andMe is going public as it pushes further into healthcare
23andMe is becoming a publicly-traded company through a merger with VG Acquisition, taking the DNA testing firm further into healthcare and research.
23andMe lays off 100 workers amid shrinking demand for DNA tests
If you're skittish about DNA testing services, you're not the only one -- and it's directly affecting one of the heavyweights in the field. The 23andMe team is laying off about 100 workers, or 14 percent of its total workforce, in light of declining sales. The job cuts will focus on units responsible for growing and scaling the company. In the months ahead, 23andMe expects to cut back its work on clinical studies and focus more on its home testing and therapeutic offerings.
The best DNA testing kit
By Amadou Diallo This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to DNA testing kits. Consumer-oriented DNA testing services come with inherent privacy risks and are bound by few legal guidelines regulating the use of your data. The ramifications of sharing your DNA with for-profit companies are continuously evolving. Opting into a recreational DNA test today will likely have future consequences that no one has even considered yet. If you're comfortable with that, we think AncestryDNA is the most effective service for people who want to learn more about their ethnic roots or find contemporary relatives. We've come to this conclusion after more than 80 hours of research and two-plus years of reporting that included evaluating the results from a test panel representing every major population group. The aptly named AncestryDNA test stood out as the best ancestry DNA test because it presented the test results in a clearer manner than other services and placed the information in a useful historical context. Since all the DNA services we tested provided broadly similar results for the ethnic origins of our panel of testers, AncestryDNA's better reports and interface gave it a clear advantage. Plus, for people seeking distant cousins or even biological parents, the company's claimed DNA database of 10 million customers—twice the size of its closest competitors—increases the odds of successful matches. Unlike the other services we tested, however, AncestryDNA cannot track your maternal and paternal heritage independently or trace your ancient migration path out of Africa. 23andMe offers the same type of ethnicity estimates (and privacy risks) as AncestryDNA at a similar price. With a DNA database of 5 million users, it may offer smaller odds of connecting with unknown relatives, but it does have the most polished site design, which makes navigating the myriad charts, reports, and explanatory documents easier than on competitors' sites. For male testers, 23andMe can provide a look at the ancient migration paths of both maternal and paternal lines independently. And while we don't cover biomedical testing in this guide, 23andMe does offer its customers a suite of reports on potential health indicators as a paid add-on service. FamilyTreeDNA offered broadly similar ethnicity estimates for our testing panel as AncestryDNA and 23andMe. Those concerned about privacy should know that it is the only service we're aware of that is voluntarily providing customer data access to law enforcement. FamilyTreeDNA does, however, provide the most comprehensive suite of testing options, offered as add-ons to the basic ethnicity test, than any service we evaluated. These additional tools should satisfy nearly any genealogy buff looking to explore their connections to early human migration or find relatives from one particular side of their family tree. The company's à la carte approach can quickly add up though. You can easily spend more than three times the testing cost of AncestryDNA or 23andMe.
23andMe's VIP service includes a one-on-one chat to explain your DNA
How does a DNA testing service like 23andMe convince you to shell out more when the base results are the same? By rolling out the red carpet, it seems. The company has introduced a $499 VIP Health + Ancestry Service that includes two Health + Ancestry kits, faster lab processing, overnight shipping, a year of "premium" support and, crucially, a 30-minute one-on-one walkthrough of your Ancestry results. Effectively, 23andMe wants to offer a concierge for your genes.
How secure is DNA testing?
Scientists only mapped the human genome 16 years ago, but today you can get a basic test of your genetic code from Walgreens. It's estimated some 26 million people have already sent their spit to direct-to-consumer DNA-testing companies, and the number is predicted to multiply to 100 million by 2021.
My DNA test confirmed it: I’m not a morning person
There's a coded judgment that people who do well in the mornings hold against those of us who do not. "You're just not a morning person," they say, the words dripping with the implication that our sluggishness in the AM is a result of slovenliness. It's the same subtext you see held against fat people, as overweight bodies are viewed as the result of some moral failing. Thankfully, I have in my hand a piece of paper -- well, on my computer, a PDF -- to refute those biases. I'm not a morning person because I'm lazy, but because it's coded into my genes.
Airbnb's 'heritage travel' section is for exploring 23andMe results
23andMe has partnered with Airbnb to let users literally explore their roots. The travel website now has a special "heritage travel" section divided into the genetic populations you'd find in a 23andMe ancestry report. The regions include Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and West Asia, Central America and Mexico, South America, East and South Asia, the Caribbean and Europe. After finding out where their ancestors hail from, 23andMe customers can click through to a specific region and plan a trip.
Family Tree DNA offers to trade privacy to catch criminals
The at-home DNA testing company Family Tree DNA is asking customers to share their genetic data to help law enforcement solve crimes. A video featuring Ed Smart, the father of kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart, attempts to frame the sharing of its genetic database with FBI as a positive. According to MIT Technology Review, the video will air as an ad in San Diego, where police were recently able to solve a 1979 murder after finding a link in a publicly available DNA database. The ad is part of a larger campaign featured prominently on Family Tree DNA's website.
23andMe says gene report can detect the risk of type 2 diabetes
23andMe is betting that its gene testing kits can help identify another major health risk: diabetes. The company plans to offer a report that identifies your genetic predisposition toward type 2 (that is, adult onset) diabetes. Unlike the company's earlier reports, the test provides a polygenic score based on gene variant research data from roughly 2.5 million customers, 70,000 of which reported diabetes -- it's not relying on any public information. Ideally, this would help you change your diet and habits to reduce the chance of developing diabetes.
23andMe, Ancestry and others agree to genetic privacy guidelines
A number of genetic testing companies, including 23andMe and Ancestry, have signed onto a set of guidelines that aim to address consumer privacy concerns, the Washington Post reports. The privacy best practices, drafted alongside the Future of Privacy Forum, state that companies should acquire "separate express consent" from customers before handing over their individual-level information -- like genetic data and personal information -- to certain third parties. It also says companies should disclose how many requests for information they receive from law enforcement. MyHeritage, Habit and Helix have agreed to the voluntary guidelines as well.
GSK to use 23andMe’s DNA library in drug development
DNA testing company 23andMe has partnered with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), in a bid to develop new drug treatments. 23andMe, which gives customers insight into their genetic makeup via postal saliva tests, has some five million customers -- a potential DNA database considerably larger than those generally available to the scientific community. "By working with GSK, we believe we will accelerate the development of breakthroughs," 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki wrote in a blog post.
Police are using ancestry sites to track down more cold case suspects
In April, California investigators arrested Joseph James DeAngelo for some of the crimes committed by the elusive Golden State Killer (GSK), a man who is believed to have raped over 50 women and murdered at least 12 people between 1978 and 1986. Investigators tracked him down through an open-source ancestry site called GEDMatch, uploading the GSK's DNA profile and matching it to relatives whose DNA profiles were also hosted on the website. Now, using those same techniques, a handful of other arrests have been made for unsolved cases, some going as far back as 1981.
California Rep. requests 23andMe to help reunite children with families
California Representative Jackie Speier reportedly asked DNA-testing company 23andMe to help reunite children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border due to Trump's 'zero tolerance' immigration policies. She told Buzzfeed that she was concerned with the lack of records for families that have been split up, but it was unclear if, or to what extent, the genetics company would get involved.
