The bankruptcy sale of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe and its trove of genetic data has raised serious national security concerns among lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They want to know what will be done to make sure the data will stay out of the hands of adversaries like China.
“It’s hard to not sit here and listen to this conversation and not feel like we’re living through a sci-fi movie,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., said during Tuesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing where 23andMe’s interim CEO Joe Selsavage and founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki, who is also bidding to buy the company, appeared as witnesses.
“A private company has our data, they experience bankruptcy and now, we have no federal regulatory system to protect that data. And we’re concerned that foreign adversaries might purchase the company and thus, the data. I mean, this is insane. Like this is crazy,” Stansbury said.
Hellbound and Down 