DCN statement about 23andMe filing for bankruptcy
Back in March 2025, 23andMe went into receivership which we knew would be both of interest to and potentially alarming for some of our members, including donor conceived adults using the service to trace genetic relatives. We issued this statement in April 2025 and following recent developments have updated as below.
2 April 2025: We wanted to address the news about 23andMe filing for bankruptcy this week.
There has been a lot of discussion online about the situation and it’s implications. If you’re unaware, 23andMe is one of the direct-to-consumer (DTC) home DNA testing sites. These DNA testing websites have had a big impact on the donor conception community. Home DNA tests have uncovered family secrets unintentionally, including the fact that someone is donor conceived or a relative was a donor. It’s also been used by donor conceived people actively seeking information about their genetic roots, ethnicity or genetic relatives, including their donor or half siblings.
In any case, 23andMe is a hugely popular site holding the private data of over 15 million people worldwide and, understandably, those individuals want to understand what the implications are of the company going bankrupt, along with working out what they should do in terms of their data.
We’ve had contact with Debbie Kennett, a genetic genealogist based in the UK. She recommends that people read this excellent article in Family Tree Magazine. Family Tree Magazine went through the bankruptcy process themselves and emerged safely, so they are perhaps in a good position to provide some insight.
Debbie is leaving her data on 23andMe for now and is suggesting people don’t remove their data immediately and instead suggests they wait and see how things evolve.
Further reading:
- 23andMe press release
- Useful set of FAQs for customers
- Open letter to customers published on their blog
Update, 9 July 2025: 23andMe was recently fined £2.31 million by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office after a 2023 cyber‑attack exposed personal data – including family trees, health reports, names and postcodes – of around 155,000 UK customers and nearly 7 million users worldwide. The ICO described the breach as “profoundly damaging” and faulted the company for inadequate security measures and delayed response . This comes alongside a U.S. court-approved £240 million ($305 million) sale of 23andMe to TTAM Research Institute, founded by co‑founder Anne Wojcicki, as part of its Chapter 11 proceedings. Privacy safeguards remain in place, though legal challenges continue from U.S. states and UK data-protection authorities. You can read the full report from the US Privacy Ombudsman here.
