Latest news with #privacyConcerns
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Court approves sale of 23andMe to nonprofit led by co-founder Anne Wojcicki
23andMe, a distressed genetic testing company that filed for bankruptcy this year, has received another potential lifeline. A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the company's assets and business operations to a nonprofit led by 23andMe's co-founder and former chief executive, Anne Wojcicki. The nonprofit, TTAM Research Institute, will pay $305 million as part of the deal that will probably close in the coming weeks. The South San Francisco company's financial turmoil sparked privacy concerns over what happens to the genetic data of its 13 million customers if it's sold. These worries prompted 1.9 million users to delete their accounts. Several states, including California, sued to block the sale of 23andMe's data without user consent, arguing that customers have an inherent right to their own genetic information. Unlike a password, a person's genetic data can't be changed if compromised. Read more: 23andMe bankruptcy leaves control of genetic data from millions in limbo Judge Brian Walsh of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, in St. Louis, said in an opinion filed Friday that "a company's sale of genetic data is a scary proposition, and reasonable people might conclude that it should not be permitted in any circumstances." But the proposed sale means that Wojcicki would repurchase a business that she helped start and led for years. And she "will improve privacy practices while honoring customers' rights to delete their accounts and data," the judge said. 'Core to my beliefs is that individuals should be empowered to have choice and transparency with respect to their genetic data and have the opportunity to continue to learn about their ancestry and health risks as they wish," Wojcicki said in a statement. The entrepreneur has tried to pave the way forward for 23andMe several times in the past. Before 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, the company's special committee rejected Wojcicki's proposal to take the company private by acquiring all of the company's outstanding shares. The company's stock plunged before it filed for bankruptcy. Wojcicki stepped down from her role as chief executive but remained on 23andMe's board. Earlier, drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals was set to buy 23andMe. Then a bankruptcy judge reopened the bidding process to allow for a bid from TTAM, which offered a higher price. Weighing arguments from states opposed to the sale, Walsh noted that 23andMe's privacy statement says its users' personal information could be sold as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of the company's assets. Under the deal, TTAM would make employment offers to 23andMe workers and genetic data wouldn't be disclosed to new parties, according to the court filing. Once valued at $6 billion, 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. Founded in 2006, the company sells DNA testing kits that people use to learn about their ancestry and health. The company struggled with recurring revenue growth because people just took the DNA test once. It also faced privacy concerns. In 2023, hackers obtained personal information of roughly 7 million customers. Some of the data accessed included ancestry trees, birth years and geographic locations, highlighting the risks that come with handing over data to private companies. In an email sent to customers after the sale was approved, 23andMe said that TTAM is committed to adhering to the company's privacy policy and that customers have the right to opt out of research or delete their accounts. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Sign in to access your portfolio
CNET
18-06-2025
- Business
- CNET
Can I Delete My 23andMe DNA? Everything to Know as the Genetics Company Gets a New Owner
A data breach raised concerns about the safety of sensitive information with 23andMe. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Capping off a dire run of bad news in the last year, 23andMe announced last week that it will be acquired, in a new twist, by a nonprofit called TTAM Research Institute led by 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki. Even with that resolution, the ordeals that the genetic-testing firm has weathered still may have a lot of folks wondering: Can I delete the genetic info that I sent to company? And how exactly can I go about doing that? As we grow increasingly aware of how much of our personal information is gathered across the internet, our genetic information is perhaps the most personal data we could possibly share with anyone, especially commercial ventures. But over 15 million people did just that with 23andMe because of the ancestry-tracking services it offered. These concerns certainly weren't soothed by recent news out of the company. In November, 23andMe announced it would lay off around 40% of its workforce in the wake of a major data leak and ongoing financial and management struggles, including a stock price that plummeted by 70%. Around 6.9 million customers were affected by the data breach, with investigations finding that the hackers responsible for the attack specifically targeted the accounts of people with Chinese or Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, which they spread on the dark web. After all of that, and four years of dwindling sales, 23andMe entered bankruptcy proceedings. At first, a buyer for the company looked to be a pharmaceutical company, Regeneron, which stirred concerns about how the genetic data might be used. Then, in June, in a final round of bidding, TTAM got the green light to acquire 23andMe for $305 million (compared with Regeneron's $256 million offer). "I am thrilled that TTAM Research Institute will be able to continue the mission of 23andMe to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome," Wojcicki said in a statement. That may not be enough to satisfy privacy-conscious people out there. To get all the details about what you can do with the data 23andMe has from you, keep reading, and for more, find out how much 23andMe will pay out in a class-action settlement and read about the complex relationship between DNA testing companies and privacy. You can also check out CNET's Best DNA Testing services of 2025 list. Can you delete your 23andMe account? Yes. If you used 23andMe for DNA testing, you have the option to delete your account and personal information whenever you choose. A 23andMe spokesperson told CNET that once your request is submitted, the process of deleting data begins "immediately and automatically" and can take about 30 days to complete. But not all your data is deleted in 30 days. In its June 13 press release announcing its acquisition, TTAM said it "will honor 23andMe's existing policies that allow individuals to delete their account and genetic data and opt out of research in perpetuity." It also said all customers will receive an email with details about TTAM's privacy policies and "instructions on how to delete data or opt out of research." What data is deleted after you close your 23andMe account? The answer to this is more complicated. Your 23andMe data will be deleted after you request the deletion of your profile, a company spokesperson told CNET. The process gives you the option to have the company discard your genetic sample, too, if you initially requested that 23andMe store it. And your information will no longer be usable for any of the company's research projects. However, there's more to it than that. "If a customer opted in to 23andMe Research, their Personal Information will no longer be used in any future research projects," the spokesperson said. "Please note, data cannot be removed from research that's already been conducted." Bay Area news site SFGate found that genotyping laboratories that worked on a 23andMe customer's sample will also hold on to the customer's sex, date of birth and genetic information, even after they're "deleted." A 23andMe representative said that by law, labs are required to retain the information for a set period of time -- from two to three years -- after which it will be deleted. The representative also said that this data is retained only by the genotyping lab, not 23andMe itself. If the lab were to be the subject of any sort of breach, the data it retains is anonymous -- it doesn't include a name, address, email, phone number or other contact information -- and the genetic information included is raw and unprocessed. Before you delete your 23andMe account, download your data Before closing your account, consider saving all your 23andMe information first, including your raw genotyping data, your DNA relatives and your ancestry composition. Some of the files can take up to 30 days to prepare, so make a plan for how you want to approach this. Downloading your raw DNA file will let you upload your genetic data to another service for family or ethnicity searches, if you want. Here's how to download your raw genotyping data and related information: Log into your 23andMe account. Head to Settings and in a browser scroll to the bottom and tap View next to 23andMe Data. In the app, scroll to the bottom of Settings and tap Access your data under 23andMe data. Here, you can select which information you want to download before you delete your account. This includes an overview of your 23andMe reports, your ancestry composition raw data, your family tree data and your raw genetic data. Note: These files come through as PDF, TXT, JSON and other formats, and you'll need the appropriate apps to view the data. For your DNA file, 23andMe will send you an email with a link you use to download the data. You can also recreate everything in spreadsheets, as mapped out here, or take screenshots of everything. Some of the downloads come through right away, but some can take 30 days, 23andMe said. How to delete your 23andMe account and data Once you delete your data from 23andMe, unless you've downloaded it first, it's gone, the company warns. Ready? Here's how to delete your data: Head to Settings again, scroll down to 23andMe Data, and tap View. You may be asked to verify your birthdate to continue. If you've already downloaded or otherwise captured all the information you want to keep, scroll to the bottom and tap the Permanently Delete Data button. 23andMe will send you an email asking you to confirm your request. Once you do, the company will begin the deletion process and you will lose access to your account. If you had the company store your genetic samples, it will discard them. For more, find out how 23andMe fares against its main competitor, Ancestry.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Yahoo
Kzoo police shut down immigration-related use of license plate readers
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A West Michigan police department has shut off external access to its license plate reader (LPR) cameras after learning the data was being searched by departments 'focused on immigration-related violations.' The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety released a statement Friday confirming the agency blocked outside access to its cameras: 'The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety was recently made aware of nationwide License Plate Recognition (LPR) camera searches being conducted by outside law enforcement agencies focused on immigration-related violations. Once we learned that our city was being listed in these searches, we made the decision to suspend all external law enforcement access to our LPR cameras, except for local public safety partners within Kalamazoo County. 'This action reflects our continued commitment to ensuring these tools are used in a way that aligns with our city's values. KDPS is and will remain a department that all members of the community can trust and feel safe contacting. Protecting that trust is essential to our mission of serving everyone in the City of Kalamazoo with fairness, respect, and accountability.' A statement released by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety read Several West Michigan police agencies, including Grand Rapids, have Flock Safety cameras installed in their jurisdictions. The system automatically reads and records license plates. The agencies have defended their use of LPRs amid privacy concerns, arguing the system keeps communities safer by preventing and solving crime. They've also said they do not use the cameras for immigration-related investigations. The Grand Rapids Police Department released a statement from Police Chief Eric Winstrom Friday addressing the issue: 'I want to assure our community that GRPD does not utilize license plate readers (LPRs) to conduct immigration-related investigations. A GRPD officer has been falsely identified on social media as conducting searches related to immigration enforcement actions. We are not the source of this document, and are unable to verify its origin, but can confirm no GRPD officers are using license plate readers to engage in immigration-related activity. 'This would be in direct conflict with our policy which states in part: The GRPD is neither responsible for, nor has the authority to, enforce federal civil immigration laws used to detain or remove undocumented immigrants from the United States. This means that the GRPD does not serve as a civil immigration enforcement agency for the federal government. The department does not take on the responsibility of performing immigration functions unrelated to investigating and enforcing criminal violations.' White House puts out list of 500 'sanctuary jurisdictions' A statement released by Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom read The statements come one week after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed and counties among 500 'sanctuary jurisdictions' nationwide. Both counties refuted that designation. DHS has since from its website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
RNZ News
03-06-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Morning Report Essentials for Wednesday 4 June 2025
media life and society 20 minutes ago In today's episode, according to results out on Wednesday morning, the left bloc would have enough support to govern, the Privacy Commissioner says facial recognition technology in North Island supermarkets has potential safety benefits, despite raising significant privacy concerns, after a shareholders meeting on Tuesday media company NZME - which owns the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB - has a revamped board and an historic ship at the Paihia waterfront in Northland has been 90 percent destroyed by fire.
RNZ News
03-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Privacy commissioner inquiry finds supermarket facial recognition tech's use is justified
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster says any business using facial recognition technology must ensure the system is set up correctly to stay within the law. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith The Privacy Commissioner says facial recognition technology in supermarkets has potential safety benefits, despite raising significant privacy concerns. An inquiry from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner into facial recognition trialled by Foodstuffs in the North Island found any business using facial recognition tech, or considering doing so, must ensure the system is set up correctly to stay within the law. Commissioner Michael Webster says the system raised privacy concerns, like the unnecessary or unfair collection of a customer's information, misidentification, technical bias and its ability to be used for surveillance. The commissioner found the live technology model used in the trial was complaint with the Privacy Act. "These issues become particularly critical when people need to access essential services such as supermarkets. FRT (facial recognition technology) will only be acceptable if the use is necessary and the privacy risks are successfully managed," Webster said. Foodstuffs owns the PAK'nSAVE, New World and Four Square brands. Photo: Supplied The Foodstuffs trial ended last September, and ran in 25 supermarkets. About 226 million faces were scanned during the trial, including multiple scans of the same person, and 99.999 percent of those were deleted within one minute. The trial raised 1742 alerts, 1208 were confirmed matches to store watchlists - databases made from images of people of interest to a store. In December 2024, a woman took her case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal after she was wrongly kicked out of a Rotorua supermarket , claiming the technology was discriminatory. There were nine instances of someone being approached by staff, but misidentified as the wrong person during the trial. In two cases, the shopper was asked to leave. All nine instances were attributable to human error, and were outweighed by the benefits of using facial recognition , justifying its use. The inquiry found while the level of intrusion to customers privacy was high because every visitor's face was collected, the safeguards used in the trial reduced the intrusion to an acceptable level. Webster said there was still work needed to improve the safety and efficiency of facial recognition software for New Zealand, as it had been developed overseas and not trained on a local population. He said the commission could not be completely confident the technology had addressed issues on technical bias, and that it had the potential to negatively impact Māori and Pacific people. "This means the technology must only be used with the right processes in place, including human checks that an alert is accurate before acting on it. "I also expect that Foodstuffs North Island will put in place monitoring and review to allow it to evaluate the impact of skin tone on identification accuracy and store response, and to provide confidence to the regulator and customers that key privacy safeguards remain in place," Webster said. The safeguards included immediately deleting images that did not match with a store's watchlist, setting up the system to only identify those whose behaviour was seriously harmful, like violent offending, not allowing staff to add images of people under 18 or those thought to be vulnerable to the watchlist and not sharing watchlist information between stores. Match alerts were verified by two trained staff members to make sure a human decision was part of the process, the inquiry report said, and access to the facial recognition system and its information was restricted to authorised staff. Images collected were not permitted to be used for training data purposes, the report said. General counsel for Foodstuffs North Island Julian Benefield said the goal behind the FRT trail was to understand whether it could reduce harm while respecting people's privacy, saying it had succeeded in doing so. "Retail crime remains a serious and complex problem across New Zealand," he said. "Our people continue to be assaulted, threatened and verbally abused, and we're committed to doing all we can to create safer retail environments." Benefield said privacy was at the heart of the trial. He said an independent evaluator found the trial prevented more than 100 cases of serious harm, including assaults. "We have worked closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and listened to their feedback. "We welcome the OPC's feedback on areas for improvement and will carefully consider their recommendations, including the need to monitor accuracy, before we make any decisions about future permanent use." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
