The company behind a popular at - family DNA testing kits , 23andMe , has lay off roughly 100 employee amid wane demand for its product .
The company confirm to Gizmodo that the layoff amount to roughly 14 percent of the society ’s employees , adding that its “ consumer business was impact company - astray . ” 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki toldCNBC , which first reported the layoffs , that she was “ surprised ” by the switching in demand .
CNBC cited Wojcicki as noting privateness concerns could be one potential constituent for the decline in sale , with Wojcicki tell the site that “ privateness is top of mind ” for the caller and that it has lately work on a newfangled security chief . While CNBC report that Wojcicki does n’t have substantiation that consumer privateness fright are the primary driver for spiraling sales , it ’s certainly one in effect rationale . There are plenty of other reason at - habitation DNA testing outfit are fall back their novelty .
Photo: ERIC BARADAT/AFP (Getty)
For one , enquiry has find that these test arenot 100 percentage accurateor even acompletesnapshot of an soul ’s wellness visibility . In fact , the tests have been known to matte outbotch resultant . But if deceptive or all told inaccurate information is n’t enough of a rationality for exploiter to give the kit a pass , their privacy should be . For example , ifsharing data related to your genetical profilewith pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline makes your skin crawl , 23andMe is not the production for you .
Still , restoring trust in the company ’s policies around “ privacy”—or , rather , the repair living dead variation seemingly used by virtuallyeverytechcompany , including the data butterfingers over atFacebook — seems to be one of the company ’s firstly concentre right now . How else can you get away with selling a product asking people to fork over extremely sensitive and personal genetic data about themselves in the year 2020 if you do n’t ?
Do you have information about 23andMe you ’d like to share ? Contact[email protected]or peak us anonymously throughSecure Drop .
23andMeDNA Testinglayoffs
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
news program from the future tense , delivered to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
