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23andMe Sued over Hack of Genetic Data Affecting Thousands
- jruohonen 3y agoMaybe people will someday learn to not trust arbitrary companies with their genetic and other data.
- maximus-decimus 3y agoI just don't think it's truly personal information if they can link to you base on your cousin's DNA. I see it the same as something like your height, race and sex. It's not exactly something you can hide easily.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoPlus you leave a trail of it behind wherever you go! Just like fingerprints.
- jruohonen 3y ago“we value the trust of our study participants and by ensuring their data privacy now we can all reap the long-term benefits of this research.” https://edu.google.com/why-google/customer-stories/fimm-gcp/ https://edu.google.com/why-google/customer-stories/fimm-gcp/
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoTo clarify, there was no breach of 23andMe's system. Instead, individual users had their accounts hacked (e.g. password reuse), and the "DNA relatives" feature from 23andMe means you can see information about others who are a DNA match to you. But you choose what you get to share in the first place. If you're willing to share that info to any rando who comes up as a DNA relative, is that data really considered that private to begin with?
- jruohonen 3y ago> To clarify, there was no breach of 23andMe's system. Is this solid information? A lot of different stories in media. For instance, WP reported that there was a breach. Some other stories report a 1M-7M breach. Another thing, of course, is that the company blatantly violates the GDPR and related laws: "But during the account deletion process, 23andMe tells users that the company and its partner lab will hang onto your “genetic information, date of birth and sex,” after your account is deleted, per state and federal legal requirements, according to two 23andM3 users, who shared screenshots of the deletion process with The Post." https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/12/23andme-hack-data-breach/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/12/23andme... https://therecord.media/scraping-incident-genetic-testing-site https://therecord.media/scraping-incident-genetic-testing-si...
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago> Is this solid information? A lot of different stories in media. For instance, WP reported that there was a breach. I have not seen a single article reporting that there was an actual compromise of 23andMe's security systems. If you have any examples, please share. I have seen articles calling this a "data breach" (TFA calls it that), but it always leads to details saying it was just normal credential stuffing.
- PeterStuer 3y agoYour account has been hacked. We strongly advice you to change your DNA.
- olliej 3y agoThis is clearly a scheme by Big Biology to sell more DNA
- LarsDu88 3y agoThis "hack" is overplayed. Someone simply grabbed shared passwords from previously compromised accounts from hacks of other compromised websites, and scraped the DNA relatives. This doesn't amount to leaks of raw genetic data
- xchip 3y agoIt was clear that sooner or later there would be a leak, hack or end up in the government hands.
- keep_reading 3y agoBut they stated the raw genetic data was not accessed?