23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by nradov on Thursday January 23, 2020 @05:07PM (#22132764)

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) specifically prohibits health insurance companies from denying coverage or setting rates based on such tests.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by snowwrestler on Thursday January 23, 2020 @05:36PM (#22133042)

You are correct but a major challenge of our time today and the near future is to see whether the rule of law still works against political or financial power. From the 2008 financial crisis onward, there is a growing public sense that the powerful cannot be held subject to justice any more.

I have to say that I personally would never purchase a DNA testing kit for this reason. On the social and political trajectory that I perceive, it might not matter what federal law says, if insurance companies can build a strong enough web of mutual favors with politicians or law enforcement.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by ta999999171 on Thursday January 23, 2020 @11:08PM (#22135322)

> there is a growing public sense that the powerful cannot be held subject to justice any more.

Wrong. Not that they cannot.

Just that they ARE not. That only lasts for so long until people are fed up.

Then, reset.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by heavyset_go on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:46PM (#22134185)

Life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance etc companies can use genetic data to determine costs for policyholders or to deny coverage[1].

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/08/07/6360262...

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by JohnFen on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:42PM (#22134153)

Companies routinely demonstrate that they're often willing to do prohibited things. And this seems like the sort of thing that would be very hard to prove.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by markdown on Thursday January 23, 2020 @05:29PM (#22132980)

Thank goodness for that. They definitely won't break that law. Nope. Corporations don't do that.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by epistasis on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:08PM (#22133319)

When it's in their financial interest, they will avoid doing things that cost them money. Lawsuits are one such cost. Which is why companies train interviewers not to ask any information that laws prevent them from using during the hiring process. If you don't know, clearly you didn't use that info for discriminatory hiring practices.

Similarly, there was a very recent article about how GINA might be acting as a privacy law, since companies would prefer just not to know:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/genetic-bia...

But then, there's about zero useful information in genetic information when it comes to hiring. If there were useful information, I'm sure we'd see far more violations.

I'm far more concerned about access to life insurance, which is not covered by GINA.

Also, it's very unlikely that a 23andMe type test will have enough clinical information that would be useful even for life insurance purposes or health insurance purposes. Clinical genetic testing is far more powerful that way.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by reaperducer on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:34PM (#22133559)

Which is why companies train interviewers not to ask any information that laws prevent them from using during the hiring process.

And yet it happens all the time. All. The. Time.

If it didn't we wouldn't spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on enforcement agencies and lawsuits.

It doesn't matter how many laws are passed, companies are still run by people. And people do bad things, either knowingly or unknowingly or just because they can.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by neuronic on Friday January 24, 2020 @03:53AM (#22136525)

That is true as long as the cost of lawsuits is higher than the potential gain from breaking the law.

Companies knowingly break the law all the time, reek in profit and send out an army of lawyers to pay some minuscule fine that doesn't impact their bottom line.

Fines that don't threaten to break a companies business are just ignored and basically written off as operating costs.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by reaperducer on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:32PM (#22133541)

Thank goodness for that. They definitely won't break that law. Nope. Corporations don't do that.

"We're sorry. We can do better. How about we help write a law that regulates us?"

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by adrianmonk on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:38PM (#22134119)

I'm far from an expert, but it also sounds like something that could violate HIPAA.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by jacques_chester on Thursday January 23, 2020 @05:26PM (#22132958)

Legislation can be changed. Including retroactively.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by untog on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:36PM (#22133572)

"move fast and break things"

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