23andMe is going bankrupt, and now is the time to rescue your data.
The ancestry search company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the weekend, which immediately caused alarm in privacy-focused individuals. A company on the verge of financial collapse is probably not one that can be trusted with your literal DNA, they argued. One could also argue 23andMe was never trustworthy to begin with, but let’s focus on the present.
If you’ve ever submitted a saliva test to 23andMe, the company has valuable data of yours on file. The good news is you can fix that. Here’s how.
How to delete your 23andMe data
The one silver lining to all of this is that deleting your 23andMe data seems very easy:
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Log into your account and go to “Settings”
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Scroll to “23andMe data” and click “view”
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Go to “Delete data” and click “Permanently delete data”
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Go through the confirmation process
You’ll also be given a chance to download your data before deletion, which couldn’t hurt. Also, importantly, you can delete the genetic test sample you submitted to 23andMe by going back to the “Settings” menu and finding “Preferences.” You should almost definitely do all of these things ASAP.
