23andMe’s demise is a warning: the US needs to overhaul genetic data protection | Dalton Conley

We’re moving toward a society where genetic information is a part of everyday life – and we don’t want it in the wrong hands

With a heavy heart, I clicked on my 23andMe account on a recent morning, confirming that I wanted to delete my data. The genetic testing company filed for bankruptcy late last month and the California attorney general and others have recommended that users delete their data lest it be acquired by less scrupulous companies as the company is stripped for parts during bankruptcy proceedings.

I was one of the company’s earliest customers and had used their service to genotype not just myself but my entire extended family. I even got my kids’ babysitter a kit.

Dalton Conley is Henry Putnam university professor of sociology at Princeton University and author of The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture