'Men And Woman Are Different, Right?': Katie Britt Grills 23andMe CEO About Gender Identity Policy

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At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) questioned interim 23andMe CEO Joseph Selsavage.

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00:00And the senator's question, so would you commit today to the same privacy standards that you have

00:05demanding those of the company that purchases 23andMe? Do not sell unless they keep the same

00:12privacy standards that you have? Yes, that is a requirement, you know, basically of any of the

00:17two buyers and they have put that in their asset purchase agreement. Excellent. Now tell me what

00:21all do you test for? You know, 23andMe tests for, you know, basically a significant level of,

00:29you know, genetic traits, ancestry, and health conditions. We actually, as part of our process,

00:35test over 600,000 variants through our testing process. Okay, so you're able to tell somebody

00:42maybe they can, it's predictability of potential disease and other things? And while we can't

00:48definitively say that that person will get the disease, we can highlight risk and basically

00:53when people are at higher risk for certain diseases. And so do you test for sex?

00:59You know, as part of our testing, we do identify if the DNA showed that the,

01:06if the individual is male or female. And male is XY chromosome?

01:12That is correct. And female XX? Correct.

01:15On your database though, you go into saying that if people self-identify of another gender,

01:22that you will attempt to give them a prognosis of the gender that they identify with versus the gender

01:31that they test for? Senator, I'm not aware of that. Oh yeah, you do. So it says,

01:40we understand that sex is not always binary and the words male and female may not accurately reflect an

01:46individual's identity. We also recognize that being categorized by birth sex may be an uncomfortable

01:52or triggering experience to some and we do not mean to delegitimize anyone's gender identity or

01:57expression. We use your self-reported sex to customize your health and trait reports. For example, genetic

02:05risk and what they may mean differ between men and women. So men and women are different, right? I mean,

02:12you say that here. We just talked about the genetic testing. But then you go on to say,

02:17if you tell us you're female, your reports will contain information that is relevant to genetic

02:21females XX. If you tell us you're male, your reports will contain information that is relevant to genetic

02:27males XY. Additionally, there are some sex-specific reports that are available on individual selected

02:34profile sex, such as male hair loss or bald spot. That's because either we're not able to build out an

02:41acceptable model for both genders or because the trait is actually sex-specific. And so,

02:49I guess I'm wondering, did you test, like if it's a genetic female that identified to you as a male,

02:58would you test them for male pattern baldness? Senator, you know, as you mentioned,

03:06we actually do, the customer does report to us, you know, what they believe their sex is. And we test

03:13against that as well as what we found in the DNA as testing as well. I think probably the DNA is what's

03:20best for predicting actual future disease or harm or what may come good or bad for the individual.

03:29On that note, you have about 15 million customers, is that right? That's correct. Okay. Of that, how many

03:37are kids? How many are kids? Senator, I don't know that number. So you don't know, from what I read on

03:46your website, obviously parents can agree to have their child's DNA tested. Is that correct? That is

03:53correct. So you don't know, of the 15 million people, you don't know how many of those profiles

03:58are under 18? I don't have that information with me today, but I'd be happy to take that back. Do you

04:02have a guess? I don't have a reasonable guess, Senator. Sir, I think we have to be vigilant when

04:10it comes to children and their DNA. We've talked today about all of the potential risks that could occur

04:17from privacy to security risk, obviously blackmail amongst a number of things. Would you commit to

04:25me today that in the cell you will sell no child's DNA under the age of 18, that you will delete that

04:31account? Congressman or Senator, I will take that back and we'll review that. I think you absolutely

04:37should. And on that note, when it comes to bankruptcy, Professor, tell me, you know, when you look at a

04:43privacy ombudsman in this space, when you're looking at minors, children, what type of protection

04:53is currently in place? And what do we need to be doing as Congress? And actually, I'd like to open

04:58this up to everybody to ensure that children are protected in this space. My understanding is that

05:04there are specific laws protecting children information. I'm not an expert on those laws,

05:09but whatever laws exist outside of bankruptcy are enforced inside of bankruptcy as well.

05:13Do you all have another? I'd love your thoughts. You know, for human subjects research, we have

05:18special rules for children population, and that might be a place to look for some comparisons.

05:23Do you have anything, Mr. Klein? Well, as a father, I can say that I think we all

05:28struggle with how much of our children's data or how much of our children's lives to digitize. And so there's

05:34also a degree of parental responsibility. And when it comes to health, these are very tough choices

05:38sometimes for all of us. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Padilla.

05:45Thank you. Now, colleagues, the witnesses today have explained that our bank

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