23andMe Users Should Delete Data Says Tech Columnist Geoffrey Fowler

TMZ

Anyone who shared their DNA with 23andMe needs to delete their data from the genetic information service before the company is sold to the highest bidder ... so says a tech columnist sounding the alarm on future consequences.

Transcript

00:00I'm panicked, but I'm not sure why I'm panicked and what information is it that compromises

00:08everybody.

00:09Your DNA is something you're stuck with for the rest of your life.

00:12It's not like a password that you can change.

00:14And so you need to protect it.

00:16So my advice to you and to everybody else out there, whoever did 23andMe is go in and

00:21tell them to delete it now.

00:23I get it.

00:24They got my DNA.

00:25I mean, it's not like my social security number.

00:27So what are they going to do with that information of knowing my DNA and my ancestry that would

00:35cause me to lose sleep?

00:36I would argue it's worse than getting your social security number, because your DNA is

00:41already here in 2025, the key to so much about who you are as a person.

00:46So first of all, it contains information about your ancestry.

00:49It contains information about your family tree, famously.

00:53It can be used to determine what are called non-fraternity events within a family lineage

00:58when somebody claims they are a dad and maybe they're not biologically, really.

01:03But even more scary, I think, for all of us is that it contains clues about your health,

01:11your likelihood to have certain conditions, certain kinds of diseases.

01:14And you know who would like to have that information?

01:17Insurance companies.

01:18And then maybe they could use that to figure out how to charge people different amounts

01:23based on their DNA.

01:24Or deny them coverage.

01:25Yeah.

01:26So, I mean, but here's what really scares me is that's all that we can sort of imagine

01:30here in 2025.

01:32But imagine 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when the science has advanced further,

01:38what will we be able to learn from DNA then?

01:41So this is often a problem with data, right?

01:44Like in the moment you think, oh, well, what's so bad about that?

01:47What are they going to do with this?

01:49But it catches up with you.

01:50And the more data you got out there, the more problems you're going to face later in life.

01:54You talk to attorneys general from around the country who are working on or already

01:58have passed legislation on this.

02:00How does that help people?

02:01Yeah.

02:02You know what?

02:03There's a tiny bit of good news here for ordinary consumers.

02:06As we all know, the federal government has been doing nothing to help us and our privacy

02:11over the last couple of years.

02:13But the states have been active.

02:15And California and about 20 other states now have laws on the books that say that any

02:21company that collects your data has to give you the right to delete it.

02:25So when you go into that 23andMe website, you log in, you ask them to delete it.

02:29Legally, they have to do that.

02:31And if they don't, there's real consequences for them.

02:34Everybody talks about this where, yeah, we'll delete it.

02:36But somehow it's still accessible, like when you think you destroy a computer and it's

02:42not really destroyed and they can access things later.

02:46That's not going to happen here.

02:47They really do 86 the whole thing.

02:49It's so funny.

02:50You ask that question.

02:51Literally, before I got on camera, I was messaging with the people in the California government

02:55whose job it is to make sure that they actually delete it and to go after them if they don't.

03:01They're working on it.

03:02We also know that some state attorney generals, I heard from the attorney general of Connecticut

03:06yesterday saying that they were launching an investigation.

03:09Trust me, this is a very high profile moment.

03:13And so, you know, it does take some faith in our elected leaders and institutions.

03:18But this is one case where I think the right thing is probably going to happen.

03:22And if it doesn't, we're going to hear about it in a big, explosive way.

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