The consumer-genomics company 23andMe just sold its biobank of customer genetic data to drugmaker Regeneron for $256 million.

Regeneron is to pay $256 million in cash to acquire “substantially all” of 23andMe’s assets, including its massive biobank of around 15 million customer genetic samples and data.

  • Archangel@lemm.ee
    23·
    15 hours ago

    It shouldn’t take hindsight to read the fine print in your 23andme contract. They straight up told folks, that taking their test meant signing over ownership of your DNA samples to them, for whatever future purpose they had in mind.

    Anyone who didn’t clue in to the fact that meant they were paying that company to own the rights to their DNA, is an idiot.

    • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.orgEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      If i would look for my parents or a lost sibling or whatever, i wouldn’t care, take my data i guess. But everyone knows that almost everyone who took that test did it for attention and because it was the cool thing influencers did.

    • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      Hardly. It stated that you could request to have the sample destroyed and your data removed. it’s also been revised multiple times. You read the contract, no?

      You read the privacy policy & ToS fine print of every product, service, software you use? And every revision. Even when it’s not broadcasted? The contract / “informed consent” model is totally broken. You really want to build your stance on these issue around the claim it’s a reasonable system anyone can and should have to navigate?

      • Archangel@lemm.ee
        1·
        9 hours ago

        Man, when I read the terms of service, it seemed pretty clear who owned your sample…and it wasn’t me. That’s the biggest reason I have never used one of these services. It seemed like an outright scam. I can’t speak to any changes made over the years, but at the time I looked into it, it was a hard nope for me. I have no idea why anyone would voluntarily give their DNA to a company like that, without a full guarantees it wouldn’t be used exclusively for their own profit.

        • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          8 hours ago

          If you read terms of service and think anything is clear then you have a gift that not many possess. I hope you can appreciate that. Sure, there are a lot of folks who should know better, but there’s also a lot who are bad at navigating these things. It’s by design. I think it benefits us to be sympathetic and welcoming, and to direct our anger at companies and laws. We need the privacy mindset to spread and fast. I think I understand where you’re coming from though. It’s so frustrating to care about privacy more than most people.