Genetic testing company files for bankruptcy.

If you sent off a swab sample of your DNA in order to find out if you were Norwegian, predisposed to cancer or some such…… guess what?

Your data belongs to them and its up for sale.

There MIGHT be something you can do about it if you are worried that your data can be misused.

nbcnews.com - Goes bankrupt millions peoples dna data sale

I have no dog in this fight, other than my general concerns about big data. But as regards this particular company and those like it- they build individual profiles of the individuals who send in samples, and that’s precisely the point and value of it all.

But in storing that data for future research purposes, do they strip away the personal identifiers so that no one in the future can deduce that you, John Doe are predisposed to develop some rare disease that is expensive to treat? Insurance companies might wish to get ahold of that sort of information.

I ASSUME that the company has taken the precautions necessary to anonymize their data, but if you’re concerned about it, the article linked includes a link to instructions on how to delete your data from their database.