this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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Regeneron is to pay $256 million in cash to acquire "substantially all" of 23andMe's assets, including its massive biobank of around 15 million customer genetic samples and data.

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[–] pemptago@lemmy.ml 173 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (44 children)

Hindsight is 20/20. ITT lots of folks proud of themselves for not falling into this trap, but try to understand, 23andme was named "invention of the year" by Time in 2008. That's ~~before~~ [edit: around the time] google and facebook had begun monetizing private data. Data privacy, or even the power of data itself, was hardly appreciated by private companies let alone in the public consciousness.

Orphans, people with absent parents, decedents of slaves, the list goes on for folks who would understandably go for an affordable way to access their genetic history. Sure, there were plenty of folks since then who had all the information and still went for it, but what about all those who became aware of it too late and when they requested their data be deleted were told it would be kept for 3 years!

I'm saddened to see more victim blaming here than anger at the ToS/privacy policy fuckery and a complete lack of consumer protection.

[–] RuthBaderGonesburg@hexbear.net 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah it’s weird seeing so many people dump on 23andMe users. My grandmother got to meet her biological daughter that she was forced to give up for adoption. 23andMe as a service is amazing and has been life changing for some people. And all things considered Regeneron buying them is a good thing. They’re already set up to protect sensitive patient data.

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

It would be an amazing thing if the people who controlled it and the rest of the world weren't complete fucking ghouls.

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