23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users

Technology@lemmy.world – 576 points – 12 months ago

23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users | TechCrunch

23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users::Genetic testing company 23andMe revealed that its data breach was much worse than previously reported, hitting about half of its total customers.

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The stolen data included the person’s name, birth year, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA shared with relatives, ancestry reports, and self-reported location.

23andMe also confirmed that another group of about 1.4 million people who opted-in to DNA Relatives also “had their Family Tree profile information accessed,” which includes display names, relationship labels, birth year, self-reported location and whether the user decided to share their information, the spokesperson said.

This is of course bad but is everyone thinking that actual DNA information was copied or what? That's what it seems like from y'all's comments. I mean that's a pretty easy leap to make, it's a DNA testing company after all, but they seem pretty specific on what data got out. I don't immediately see that this specific information is worse than say what a credit reporting agency has on you.

I can see someone nefarious blackmailing people that discovered they accidentally married their long lost sister or those who found out their father cheated on their mother or something.

The relatives thing is weird anyway. I took the 23andMe test and downloaded my raw data and wrote a script to find different marker values. The other info I provided the site probably isn't accurate. Don't really care if someone gets my DNA markers either cause DNA isn't like what most people think it is.