How DNA Companies Like Ancestry And 23andMe Are Using Your Genetic Data
In the past couple of years, genetic-testing companies like Ancestry and 23andMe have become popular for finding out family history and DNA information. More than 12 million Americans have sent in their DNA to be analyzed to companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. The spit-in-tube DNA you send in is anonymized and used for genetic drug research and both sites have been selling the data to third-party companies, like P&G Beauty and Pepto-Bismol, and universities, like The University of Chicago, for some time. In fact, just last week major pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, announced a $300 million deal with 23andMe. The deal entails that they can use the data to analyze the stored sample, investigate new drugs to develop and genetic data for how patients are selected for clinical trials. Both 23andMe and Ancestry said that they will not share genetic information freely, without a court order, but people are welcome to share the information online themselves sometimes in order to find lost relatives or biological parents.