23andMe Is Selling All Your Data, in Largest Sale of Genomes in History

Image by Getty / Futurism Genetics The DNA data from around 15 million people around the world is going on sale. As Nature reports, consumer-genomics company 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy — and legal permission to auction off all of that data. To some, it's an enormous risk to consumer privacy, but to some scientists, it's a major opportunity for research. "As far as I know, this is the most amount of genetic data that is potentially changing hands," University of Iowa bioethicist Anya Prince told Nature. And while privacy advocates have rung the alarm bells over the potential for all that genomic data falling into the wrong hands — and reminded customers to delete their data — others argue it could be used for good instead, especially considering its sheer scale. "If a future buyer is not interested in research collaborations, it would be a great shame that the potential this data holds for human health advances would not be realized," University of Exeter geneticist Rachel Fr ... Read full article.