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| Meme by Wyrm419 |
MARCH 28, 2025 — Ever since direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe announced on Sunday, March 23, 2025, that it was filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection and CEO Anne Wojcicki was stepping down, there's been no shortage of click-bait headlines, misleading news articles and even politicians urging 23andMe customers to immediately delete their DNA kits, along with instructions on how to do it.
Many 23andMe customers fell victim to the obtuse fear-mongering infiltrating social media and decided to delete their kits. In fact, they were in such a rush to delete their kits that it caused 23andMe's computer systems to struggle to keep up. And of course, there were newer rumors about customers experiencing difficulty in deleting their kits because 23andMe didn't want them to do so.
(1) 23andMe NEVER claimed it was going out of business.
23andMe is still open for business, and will operate as usual. Your access remains unchanged. Orders and subscriptions remain the same. Your data remains protected (after the data hack in 2023). CEO Anne Wojcicki simply intends to take the company back private; 23andMe became a publicly-traded company in 2021.
(2) 23andMe NEVER alleged it was bankrupt.
23andMe has faced all sorts of difficulties because of the FDA estoppel in 2013 and the Data Hack in 2023. The company is now VOLUNTARILY filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, which is a REORGANIZATION / RESTRUCTURING process that businesses utilize to facilitate a sale and to maximize the value of a business, while the business continues to operate. A court must approve the filing / application.
This means 23andMe will be able to continue operating its busines throughout the sale process.
Many of you have confused Chapter 11 Bankruptcy with Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, the latter of which occurs when "a financially troubled business is unable to pay creditors and the business ceases operations unless those operations are continued by the Chapter 7 trustee." And a few of you are associating 23andMe with individuals who declare Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
(3) 23andMe NEVER indicated it was selling the company to the highest bidder.
For legal purposes, it sounds like 23andMe is looking for a new buyer. However, the reality is 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki wants to repurchase the company and take it back private. Wojcicki has no intentions of selling 23andMe to anyone or for it to remain a public-traded company if she can help it.
As of March 27, 2025, a British investor and major stake-holder in 23andMe expressed interest in funding the company as it goes through the Chapter 11 process. You can read about it here.
(4) 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki NEVER said she was resigning because the company is "bankrupt" and now being sold or closing down.
Since 23andMe is a publicly-traded company, and CEO Anne Wojcicki is currently the sole board member, and because she wants to repurchase the company as a private entity, she had to step down as a CEO / board member to avoid a conflict of interest.
(5) For further questions, explanations and UPDATES, please see 23andMe's Chapter 11 FAQ here.
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| Screenshot from 23andMe's FAQ on Chapter 11 Filing |
SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?
(1) DO NOT ARBITRARILY DELETE YOUR 23ANDME DNA KITS YET, especially if you've invested your money and time into it. There were even people who never took a DNA test or tested at 23andMe for free urging everyone to delete their kits. State attorneys-general also joined in the purging under the guise of reminding constituents of their data protection rights.
Will the media, politicians or people advising you to delete your DNA kits offer you any refund on your investment? Will they help you sue if necessary?
(2) DOWNLOAD YOUR 23ANDME RAW DATA FILE(S) IMMEDIATELY (see instructions here) and store it in a secure place on your computer, e-mail, cloud and/or external drive.
- KING GENOME'S TIPS: As a matter of routine, if you test at any DNA company, the first thing you must do after receiving your test results is to download all of your raw data files, including DNA Match lists. (NOTE: At FamilyTreeDNA, if males have taken a Big Y 700 test, you will have to pay $99 to download your Y-DNA BAM file).
- When you decide to test at any DNA company, please create a separate e-mail account for your testing endeavors.
- Take screenshots of your DNA results, important DNA matches and DNA match lists.
(3) REVOKE CONSENT TO SHARING YOUR GENETIC DATA WITH RESEARCHERS, BIG PHARMA, AND MEDICAL COMPANIES. 23andMe allows you to consent or not to consent to sharing your genetic data when you first sign up and at any time you wish to do it.
- KING GENOME'S TIP: Don't subscribe or upgrade to more advanced services (ie 23andMe+Premium and 23andMe+Total Health) until this situation is resolved.
(4) DO CONTACT 23ANDME using this customer request portal, and tell them about your concerns, complaints, issues and desires. As they say, closed mouths don't get fed.
- KING GENOME'S TIP: Let 23andMe know that you want them to invest more into genetic genealogy features and tools. To be fair, 23andMe has always lauded itself as a health-first company.
(5) UPLOAD YOUR 23ANDME RAW DATA FILE TO A 3RD-PARTY DNA SITE. Of course, there's a plethora of people, including genetic genealogists, urging you to upload to DNA sites that accept raw data files from other companies, namely FamilyTreeDNA, Gedmatch and MyHeritage (for free or small fee). And you should. BUT BEWARE AND BE AWARE:
- WARNING: FamilyTreeDNA and Gedmatch allows law enforcement searches, now with your consent. However, in the past there were questionable and ethical concerns about how FamilyTreeDNA and Gedmatch allowed customers to consent. Many unsuspecting consumers didn't know they gave consent for law enforcement searches. Furthermore, law enforcement had allegedly accessed consumers's data without their consent.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS:
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| Source: lessonsfromthegoalpost.com |
Your concerns about 23andMe are valid. 23andMe has been mired in problems since the FDA stopped them from selling kits in 2013, going public in 2021, and then the data hack in 2023. I've always contended that perhaps the biggest issue is Anne Wojcicki herself and her refusal to invest more into the genetic genealogy side of the company. She has been her own worst enemy, and in the process, created more enemies.
"In September 2024, all seven independent directors of 23andMe resigned, citing disagreements with CEO Anne Wojcicki's plan to take the company private, leaving only Wojcicki as the remaining board member." Did these former directors become disgruntled and are now influencing the witch hunt on 23andMe?
- As an aside, did you know that Anne Wojcicki was married to Google co-founder Sergy Brin from 2007 to 2015? Given the current political climate in the USA, could there be something else at play here that we don't know about? I digress.
We should wait and see how this plays out. On March 27, 2025, a judge approved 23andMe's application for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Will Anne Wojcicki and her potential investors be able to buy the company as a private entity? Or will she be forced to sell it to a larger corporation that seeks to preserve it, and make it better? Only time will tell.
23andMe isn't the only DNA company to facilitate a sale process. For example, on December 2020, Ancestry.com was acquired by The Blackstone Group for $4.7 billion. In January 2022, FamilyTreeDNA, as a division of Gene by Gene, was acquired by MYDNA, Inc., an Australian company. As of December 9, 2019, GEDmatch was acquired by Verogen, Inc., a sequencing company solely dedicated to forensic science. In early 2021, MyHeritage was acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners for $600 million. Notably, there was no media or political outrage to delete your kits from these DNA companies when a sale occurred.
Many major "secure" web sites and databases, including those owned by the US Government, with far more sensitive and personal information (social security numbers, credit card and bank info, etc) have been hacked. A hacking or breach could happen at any time to any site or database. For what it's worth, 23andMe has always been annoyingly and notoriously private.
Ultimately, it is your prerogative to purge your 23andMe DNA kits. But don't make a misinformed, as(S)inine decision that you may regret later based on other people's paranoia, hidden agendas and the media's fear-mongering. Don't let the naysayers enlist you into their mission to totally destroy 23andMe. And whatever you decide to do, make sure you don't put the cart before the horse by deleting your DNA kits with the masses because sometimes the "m" is silent.
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