AG Bonta reminds 23andMe customers of the right to delete their data

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- California's attorney general is sending out a warning Friday amid worries 23andMe, a Bay Area-based DNA testing company, will go under and take customers' data with it.

Attorney General Rob Bonta sent out a warning, reminding people they have the right to request their genetic data be deleted.

Because of California state law, people who submitted samples are allowed to take action to protect themselves.

They can choose to permanently delete their data and also select to revoke permission for their genetic data to be used for research.

A 23andMe spokesperson sent the following statement to ABC7 News:

23ndMe remains committed to our customers' privacy and our strong customer privacy protections remain in place. 23andMe does not share customer data with third parties without a customer's consent, and our Research program is opt-in, requiring customers to provide separate informed consent before joining. Further, 23andMe Research is overseen by an outside Institutional Review Board, ensuring we meet high ethical standards for the research we conduct.

In addition to our own strict privacy and security protocols, 23andMe complies with state and federal consumer privacy and genetic privacy laws to protect our customers' genetic data.

We are committed to protecting customer data and are consistently focused on maintaining the privacy of our customers. Read more here.

23andMe customers always have the option to delete their account at any time, and once the request is confirmed we will immediately and automatically begin the deletion process. Deleting an account and associated data will permanently delete the data associated with all profiles within the account. If you asked us to store your genetic samples, they will be discarded.

For more on the process please see here.