Past the laboratories that course of the saliva samples, the corporate doesn’t share buyer info with anybody else until the person has given permission for it to take action, the spokesperson says, together with employers, insurance coverage corporations, regulation enforcement companies, or any public databases.
“We deal with regulation enforcement inquiries, resembling a legitimate subpoena or court docket order, with the utmost seriousness. We use all authorized measures to withstand any and all requests so as to shield our buyer’s privateness,” the spokesperson says. “To this point, we’ve got efficiently challenged these requests and haven’t launched any info to regulation enforcement.”
For individuals who nonetheless need their knowledge deleted, right here’s the way you go about it.
The way to delete your knowledge from 23andMe
- Log into your account and navigate to Settings.
- Below Settings, scroll to the part titled 23andMe knowledge. Choose View.
- You could be requested to enter your date of beginning for further safety.
- Within the subsequent part, you’ll be requested which, if any, private knowledge you’d prefer to obtain from the corporate (onto a private, not public, pc). When you’re completed, scroll to the underside and choose Completely delete knowledge.
- You must then obtain an electronic mail from 23andMe detailing its account deletion coverage and requesting that you just affirm your request. When you affirm you’d like your knowledge to be deleted, the deletion will start mechanically and also you’ll instantly lose entry to your account.
What about your genetic pattern?
Once you arrange your 23andMe account, you’re given the choice both to have your saliva pattern securely destroyed or to have it saved for future testing. For those who’ve beforehand opted to retailer your pattern however now need to delete your 23andMe account, the corporate says, it’ll destroy the pattern for you as a part of the account deletion course of.
What if you wish to preserve your genetic knowledge, simply not on 23andMe?
Even if you’d like your knowledge taken off 23AndMe, there are explanation why you would possibly nonetheless need to have it hosted on different DNA websites—for genealogical analysis, for instance. And a few folks like the thought of getting their DNA outcomes saved on a couple of database in case one thing occurs to anyone firm. That is the place downloading your knowledge comes into play. FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, GEDmatch, and Residing DNA are among the many DNA testing corporations that mean you can add current DNA outcomes from different corporations, though Ancestry and 23andMe don’t settle for uploads.
The way to obtain your uncooked genetic knowledge
- Navigate on to you.23andme.com/instruments/knowledge/.
- Click on in your profile identify on the highest right-hand nook. Then choose Assets from the menu.
- Choose Browse uncooked genotyping knowledge after which Obtain.
- Go to Account settings and click on on View underneath 23andMe knowledge.
- Enter your date of beginning for safety functions.
- Tick the field indicating that you just perceive the restrictions and dangers related to importing your info to third-party websites and press Submit request.
23andMe warns its customers that importing their knowledge to different companies might put genetic knowledge privateness in danger. For instance, unhealthy actors might use another person’s DNA knowledge to create faux genetic profiles.
They may use these profiles to “match” with a relative and entry private figuring out info and particular DNA variants—resembling details about any illness threat variants you would possibly carry, the spokesperson says, including: “That is one purpose why we don’t assist importing DNA to 23andMe right now.”
Replace: This text has been up to date to replicate that when requested in regards to the nature of the genetic info it retains, 23andMe referred us to its privateness coverage however did not present some other particulars.
