The once-popular and now-bankrupt DNA testing company 23andMe is about to sell its trove of genetic data to the highest bidder, marking a rare bipartisan moment of shared horror among legislators who say it’s finally time to create a national privacy law.
For the second day in a row, the company’s top executive was pummeled on Capitol Hill over concerns that the company is about to transfer roughly 15 million people’s genetic information to a pharmaceutical company or a newly created firm — without any guarantee that it would not be misused.
The hearings come just as 27 states and the District of Columbia filed suit against the company and urged residents to ask the company to delete their data.