There is another aspect of 23andMe’s business, one which has received less attention from the media (with the exception of an excellent writeup in Scientific American by Charles Seife), but which is, in actuality, both equally troubling and equally fascinating.
“The long game here is not to make money selling kits, although the kits are essential to get the base-level data,” said Patrick Chung, a 23andMe board member. And the company’s privacy policy, it’s worth noting, makes no promises that it will not share aggregate-level genetic data with its vendors and affiliates, such as the company that manufactures the chips used in processing saliva samples.
Read the full, original story: A genetic “Minority Report”: How corporate DNA testing could put us at risk