Image courtesy of National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
It’s been over 18 years since 23andMe started offering personal genetic information with just a saliva sample. Customers received a personalized DNA report of individual ancestry. Early investors were Google and Genentech.
After various mergers and acquisitions, 23andMe went public in 2021. In 2024, the members of the board and the company’s executives ended the relationship when the CEO announced her intentions to take the company private.
There was also a data hack in October. Approximately 5.5 million customers had their personal and very private data breached. If customers want to delete their data from 23andMe, it cannot be reversed; once it’s deleted it is gone forever, so they should make copies of everything first.
However, according to 23andMe’s privacy policy, its third-party laboratories can retain some genetic information, birth date, sex and email address.
How to delete your data from 23andMe, courtesy of MIT Technology Review
1) Log into your account and navigate to Settings.
2) Under Settings, scroll to the section titled 23andMe data. Select View.
3) You may be asked to enter your date of birth for extra security.
4) In the next section, you’ll be asked which, if any, personal data you’d like to download from the company (onto a personal, not public, computer). Once you’re finished, scroll to the bottom and select Permanently delete data.
5) You should then receive an email from 23andMe detailing its account deletion policy and requesting that you confirm your request. Once you confirm you’d like your data to be deleted, the deletion will begin automatically and you’ll immediately lose access to your account.
