Chuck Schumer Takes Aim At 23andMe And Other Home DNA Testing Services

Ads for home DNA tests from the holiday buying season. Image by Facebook/Ads

By Ari Feldman November 27, 2017

Senator Chuck Schumer called for more scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission on home DNA tests on Sunday, NBC News reported. He took aim at the kinds of tests sold by 23andMe and Ancestry.com.

Schumer said that consumers who are buying the gifts at slashed prices for the holiday season may end up giving their DNA to companies that will in turn sell it to third-party users.

“Now, this is sensitive information, and what those companies can do with all that data, our sensitive and deepest information, your genetics, is not clear and in some cases not fair and not right,” Schumer said.

Schumer called on the Federal Trade Commission to “take a serious look at this relatively new kind of service and ensure that these companies can have clear, fair privacy policies.”

In a statement, a representative for 23andMe said the company doesn’t sell individual data. But 23andMe does sell “anonymized” rolls of client data to pharmaceutical companies for research purposes, and research has shown that “anonymized” genetic data can be easily be traced to its real owner.

23andMe can also give your data to police if they have a warrant for it.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO