This keeps coming up by people who are seemingly confusing 23andme with GedMatch. They are very different platforms, and even the latter has greatly changed their law enforcement policies.

23andme requires a warrant. They publish a transparency report and since 2015 they've gotten a grand total of 7.

Having said that, if my DNA catches a distant relative who commits severe crimes, that hardly discourages me.

As an aside, what's with the bizarre moderation of HN lately? The circle of users allowed to downvote has gotten perhaps a little too big as the utilization for noting "this does not conform with my biases" has turned absolutely Reddit-like.

The parent post is wrong about 23andme -- it doesn't matter if you like the company or not, their point is wrong -- and the notion that you're caught up in a "dragnet" because of a far off ancestor committed a crime implies that you think the people who do genetic ancestry are idiots.

You may be technically correct, but the complaint is just a facet of the deeper (more real) issue: people want to own and control their data and they increasingly do not trust other parties. Even if 23&Me requires a warrant rather than a suppoena that's just nuance lost in a haze of "the customer is the product" exploitation that consumers hate yet feel forced to accept just like "click through" legalese.

> This keeps coming up by people who are seemingly confusing 23andme with GedMatch. They are very different platforms, and even the latter has greatly changed their law enforcement policies.

This confusion matters if the average customer is making decisions based on that info. It doesn't matter (yet?) that they require a warrant and are transparent. All that matters is that enough people believe 23andme will share personal data for sales to be affected

I would expect it to matter on HN. Facts matter. Increasingly people are just saying entirely wrong, easily disproven things and because it sounds right to whatever the bias of the crowd is, it's accepted.

However I doubt that angle has any relevance to their sales decline, beyond the most fringe element. As others have rightly said, the majority of people who have an interest in the information that 23andme offers have already done it or a competitor, having probably picked it up over one of the multiple Prime Days, etc. They do have revisions of their chip and improved information, but thus far they haven't marketed that for repurchases.

Agreed. I don't think law enforcement concerns are a factor in the decline either (else Ring doorbells wouldn't be flying off the shelves etc.)

> you think the people who do genetic ancestry are idiots.

I've seen anonymous but redacted proof-bearing confessions from people these companies saying they "fuck with pure white people" by throwing in random ethnicities, so...at minimum, not all of them respect the integrity of their work.

Which shouldn't surprise anyone, due to...them being humans.

It sounds like you read an absurd fan fiction. The notion is absolutely ludicrous for a variety of reasons that are too boring to get into here, but it is absolutely remarkable the nonsense parroted about 23andme on HN.

Sad news for you endorphone: you're a 100% match for a serial killer based on the limited analysis and shoddy lab work that contaminated your 23andme sample. Here's a court order requiring you to submit a new sample to us. We're also going to need your passport so cancel that vacation you had planned.