23 and not me any more

real_aurgathor · 2025-03-24T17:39:01+00:00

The pioneer of direct to consumer genetic testing just filed for bankruptcy. I guess having a business model relying on a test that most people do only once may not work for very long. BTW, the company was valued about $6B some time ago. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/03/24/23andme-bankruptcy-ceo-anne-wojcicki-resigns/82633227007/

px_eliezer_

Sparkchaser

Ancestry.com offers a great service (talking about the family tree info etc, NOT their DNA side) but their fees kept going up, and after a while it got to be too expensive.

As well, it eventually gets to be a point of diminishing returns, as you go farther back in time.

px_eliezer_

Sparkchaser Is that strictly due to the DNA link?

Exactly.

Cops don’t care about your dead ancestors, rather they want to find your live cousins who are being sought by the authorities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_genetic_genealogy

telcodad

px_eliezer_ Cops don’t care about your dead ancestors, rather they want to find your live cousins who are being sought by the authorities.

Right, that’s how they caught the “Golden State Killer:”

How Genetic Genealogy Helped Catch The Golden State Killer
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2020/06/30/genetic-genealogy-golden-state-killer/

real_aurgathor

telcodad My wife and I both chose 23andMe about 2 years ago, when they had their Ancestry+Health kits on sale.

I know my ancestry reasonably well, so getting some additional information on it wouldn’t worth much.

However. the health related info is a whole different ballgame, and it may very well have some real value.

telcodad

real_aurgathor telcodad My wife and I both chose 23andMe about 2 years ago, when they had their Ancestry+Health kits on sale.

I know my ancestry reasonably well, so getting some additional information on it wouldn’t worth much.

However. the health related info is a whole different ballgame, and it may very well have some real value.

Yeah, well my wife and I have both been told what our ancestry was, but we wanted to just verify it.

Turned out what we both were told was true, but I have heard of stories where people were quite surprised at their results.

For example, from a recent episode of the popular TV show “Ghosts:” 🙂

Somewhat-Reticent

Indeed, Hetty!

px_eliezer_

An awful lot of family secrets have been uncovered by these services, baby switches found out years later, extramarital affairs, fertility doctors using their own sperm for multiple women without permission….

telcodad

px_eliezer_ An awful lot of family secrets have been uncovered by these services, baby switches found out years later, extramarital affairs, fertility doctors using their own sperm for multiple women without permission….

Yeah, including married couples finding out that they’re closely related!

Sparkchaser

px_eliezer_ Cops don’t care about your dead ancestors, rather they want to find your live cousins who are being sought by the authorities.

Duh! I wasn’t thinking about the relatives, just me. Due to previous employment I’m already on the FBI, SS, FRB list.

Being Italian heritage, I guess you have to expect some relative that may be wanted. 😉

We didn’t learn (and didn’t expect) anything new about the family in the US. We did find out some funny stuff from over in the old country.

One thing we always wondered about. My grandmother looked like she might have African blood. Since Italy is not that far from Africa, it was possible. After awhile, some genetic links did show up. Don’t know how accurate but it’s interesting.

Of course, you can’t go by pictures. My maternal grandfather did not look Italian.

dave

Astyanax

Well, I agree that handing over DNA samples to a commercial entity was foolish, but that doesn’t make the company less opportunistic if they do sell it on.

GrumpyCanadian

There was an interesting article related to the company imploding; it is from a Canadian viewpoint, but relevant nonetheless:

What happens to your DNA data now that 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy?

Astyanax

dave Well, I agree that handing over DNA samples to a commercial entity was foolish, but that doesn’t make the company less opportunistic if they do sell it on.

Companies have a duty to be opportunistic (legally of course) to their investors. So when their customers sent in their DNA they should have known they were giving up their priceless genetic data to the world forevermore and were even paying to do it. So when they give up the data to a company and it eventually goes out of business that data is still with them. They may or may not have some feeble legal measures to “delete” that data but who knows how many iterations of it have been made and distributed to third parties with or without their consent (regardless of whatever their “TOS” says) while the company was functioning?

The only way to prevent that for sure is to never give it to anyone and assume that data will be distributed as widely as your email address on the “dark web”.

InternetJeff

Astyanax Companies have a duty to be opportunistic (legally of course) to their investors.

Yep, it’s called fiduciary responsibility. That duty requires publicly held companies to prioritize shareholder interests. It’s why they exist: to make a profit for their investors. The alternative is potential lawsuits by shareholders, government investigations, and loss in stock and company value. With trillions of dollars in people’s 401ks and retirement accounts, the days of doing things that don’t respect and prioritize shareholder value are long gone.

px_eliezer_

InternetJeff

You’re right of course about fiduciary responsibility….

But businesses are supposed to behave properly too, not just out of some abstract moral compass, and not just because of laws and regulations, but also because it benefits them to have a good reputation.

Let’s consider the example of Wells Fargo.

In their quest for profits, they pulled all sorts of shit (I can tell you that personally), and as a result not only incurred big government fines, but ALSO lost business due to trashed reputation.

So that is surely not a good outcome for stockholders.

Wells Fargo (and too many others) are examples of fiduciary irresponsibility

Astyanax

px_eliezer_ An awful lot of family secrets have been uncovered by these services, baby switches found out years later, extramarital affairs, fertility doctors using their own sperm for multiple women without permission….

Probably more often than not would have been better off never knowing.

Is it really good for a family to know that grandpa 100+ years ago was really the product of some tryst your great-grandma had with some drunk in a bar or whatever and have that tear apart the family today? 🙄

Somewhat-Reticent

Astyanax Is it really good for a family to know that … and have that tear apart the family today?

Might be good for family to learn their bonds aren’t all healthy, and need work.

px_eliezer_

Somewhat-Reticent

Why, if the philanderer has been dead for 80 years ??

Astyanax

Somewhat-Reticent Might be good for family to learn their bonds aren’t all healthy, and need work.

How so if those bonds were perfectly healthy and strong until this piece of family history was needlessly uncovered? Then it throws into doubt whether everyone down the lineage are now or ever were actual members of the family when there never was any before.

Somewhat-Reticent

px_eliezer_ If something as paltry as that “tears apart” the fam…

GrumpyCanadian

Astyanax Probably more often than not would have been better off never knowing.

In some ways, I agree, with the possible exception of needing to know the details of family history for medical purposes. With that possible exception aside, I don’t really care what genetic testing may claim (the accuracy of these services has been questioned numerous times). I know, without any doubt, who has been there for me, throughout my life, through great times and terrible times, to share in every little celebration and provide a shoulder to cry on; the people who stood by me, and didn’t disappear when I needed them. To me, that is far more important than anything some alleged genetic test can claim. For all intents any purposes, that defines family for me. If genes try to disagree, then that is just too bad for the genes (or our flawed understanding of them).

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