The DNA testing company 23andMe is facing big challenges that are creating concerns for the company's over 15 million customers. The company went bankrupt, and was hit with a major data breach in 2023 that exposed the personal biological data of the 15 millions of customers who entrusted the company with their information.
In March 2025, 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection due to declining demand for its DNA tests. Since then, investors started bidding to buyout the company. The bidding ended on Friday when Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and former CEO, won a bid to buy the company for $305 million through her nonprofit, TTAM Research Institute.
She outbidded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and the deal is set to close soon. It's still waiting for court approval which is scheduled to take place on June 17, 2025. However, the bankruptcy news rocked the genetic testing world and raised alarms among privacy advocates. Experts and officials are urging customers of the company to quickly protect their personal information.
Customers, as well, worried about their genetic data being sold. Despite that fact that TTAM promises to protect customers data, allow deletions of account and data, and not sell customers' genetic information in future bankruptcies unless the buyer agrees to the same protections, over 1.9 million customers, which is around 15% of the company's user base, have already requested the deletions of their genetic data from the company’s database--23andMe's Interim CEO unveiled this data this week.
Infact, the situation even gets messier last week when over two dozen states in the United States filed new lawsuits to block the sale of users’ private biological data. The states are insisting that 23andMe needs clear and explicit permissions from customers before sharing or selling their personal information to any new owner.
Initially, 23andMe doesn't support deletion of all traces of customers' DNA data especially the ones that have been shared with third-party research partners or saved in their backup system. But as Anne Wojcicki won the bid to acquire the company through her non-profit organization, the organization promises customers deletions of their data.
How to Delete your 23andMe Data
The data deletion has been made simple with Anne Wojcicki's TTAM Research Institute. To delete your biological data from 23andME, follow the steps highlighted below:
- Login to your 23andMe account and navigate to settings under your profile.
- Navigate the settings page downward to see 23andMe Data.
- Click on the View button and select Delete Data.
A confirmation message will pop-up asking you to delete data permanently. Accept the terms and click on Permanently Delete Data button to clear your Bio-data from the database of the company. However, that's not all, you'll then receive a confirmation message into your registered email address. The email message will contain a link that will lead you to a page where you will need to confirm your deletion request.
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However, it's important to let you know that,
- After you might have requested to delete your data from 23andMe, you can still download a copy of your data before the actual deletion take place.
- 23andMe’s privacy policy says they must keep your genetic info, birth date, and sex to follow legal rules, and compliance with applicable legal obligations.
- The company will also hold onto some account details—like your email, deletion request ID, and related communications—for a limited time to meet legal, contract, or audit needs, or to handle legal claims.
- In a nutshell, after you've requested to delete your biological data from 23andMe, the company can still keep some of your personal information for an unspecified period.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that 23andMe still settled the 2023 data breach lawsuit which is about $30 million till July 14, 2025. Customers who claimed being affected by the data breach got compensated.
