Past the laboratories that course of the saliva samples, the corporate doesn’t share buyer data with anybody else except the consumer has given permission for it to take action, the spokesperson says, together with employers, insurance coverage corporations, legislation enforcement businesses, or any public databases.
“We deal with legislation enforcement inquiries, similar to a legitimate subpoena or courtroom 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. “Thus far, we’ve efficiently challenged these requests and haven’t launched any data to legislation enforcement.”
For many who nonetheless need their knowledge deleted, right here’s the way you go about it.
Methods to delete your knowledge from 23andMe
- Log into your account and navigate to Settings.
- Underneath Settings, scroll to the part titled 23andMe knowledge. Choose View.
- You might be requested to enter your date of beginning for additional safety.
- Within the subsequent part, you’ll be requested which, if any, private knowledge you’d wish to obtain from the corporate (onto a private, not public, laptop). When you’re completed, scroll to the underside and choose Completely delete knowledge.
- You need to then obtain an e 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 robotically and also you’ll instantly lose entry to your account.
What about your genetic pattern?
If 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. In case you’ve beforehand opted to retailer your pattern however now wish 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 would like your knowledge taken off 23AndMe, there are the explanation why you would possibly nonetheless wish to have it hosted on different DNA websites—for genealogical analysis, for instance. And a few folks like the concept of getting their DNA outcomes saved on multiple database in case one thing occurs to anybody 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 present DNA outcomes from different corporations, though Ancestry and 23andMe don’t settle for uploads.
Methods 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 Sources from the menu.
- Choose Browse uncooked genotyping knowledge after which Obtain.
- Go to Account settings and click on on View beneath 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 data to third-party websites and press Submit request.
23andMe warns its customers that importing their knowledge to different providers may put genetic knowledge privateness in danger. For instance, unhealthy actors may 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 data and particular DNA variants—similar to details about any illness threat variants you would possibly carry, the spokesperson says, including: “That is one purpose why we don’t help importing DNA to 23andMe presently.”
Replace: This text has been up to date to replicate that when requested in regards to the nature of the genetic data it retains, 23andMe referred us to its privateness coverage however did not present some other particulars.