23andMe is not doing well. Its stock is on the verge of being delisted. The company shut down its in-house drug-development unit last month, and the entire board of directors quit, save for Anne Wojcicki, its CEO. Wojcicki has said she'll consider selling 23andMe, which means the DNA of 23andMe's 15 million customers would be up for sale, too.
For about two decades now, the A's, C's, G's, and T's of DNA have allowed long-lost relatives to connect and revealed family secrets. However, most consumer tests don't have much to offer beyond a snapshot of our ancestors' roots and confirmation of known traits, like eye color.
23andMe is floundering in part because it hasn't managed to prove the value of collecting sensitive personal information. This should concern anyone who has used the service, as potential buyers may have very different ideas about how to use the company's DNA data to raise profits.
Unlike a doctor's office, 23andMe is not bound by health-privacy law HIPAA. The company's policies make clear that in the event of a merger or acquisition, customer information is a salable asset, raising concerns about who may ultimately control and exploit that data.
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