A Sale of 23andMe’s Data Would Be Bad for Privacy. Here’s What Customers Can Do.

The CEO of 23andMe has recently said she’d consider selling the genetic genealogy testing company–and with it, the sensitive DNA data that it’s collected, and stored, from many of its 15 million customers. Customers and their relatives are rightly...

Cops Running DNA-Manufactured Faces Through Face Recognition is Tornado of Bad Ideas

In keeping with law enforcement’s grand tradition of taking antiquated, invasive, and oppressive technologies, making them digital, and then calling it innovation, police in the U.S. recently combined two existing dystopian technologies in a brand...

What to Do If You're Concerned About the 23andMe Breach

In early October, a bad actor claimed they were selling account details from the genetic testing service, 23andMe, which included alleged data of one million users of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and another 100,000 users of Chinese descent. By...

The U.S. Government’s Database of Immigrant DNA Has Hit Scary, Astronomical Proportions

The FBI recently released its proposed budget for 2024, and its request for a massive increase in funding for its DNA database should concern us all. The FBI is asking for an additional $53 million in funding to aid in the collection,...

Montana’s New Genetic Privacy Law Caps Off Ten Years of Innovative State Privacy Protections

Over the last 10+ years, Montana has, with little fanfare or national attention, steadily pushed to protect its residents’ privacy interests through sensible laws that recognize the unique threats posed by new technologies. Now Montana has passed...

Victory! Biden Administration Rescinds Dangerous DHS Proposed Rule to Expand Biometrics Collection

Marking a big win for the privacy and civil liberties of immigrant communities, the Biden Administration recently rescinded a Trump-era proposed rule that would have massively expanded the collection of biometrics from people applying for an...