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- #004: How to Save and Protect Your Genetic Data Before 23andMe Folds
#004: How to Save and Protect Your Genetic Data Before 23andMe Folds
Protect your DNA in a post-23andMe world, decode Utah’s latest tech regulation, and meet the app trying to make social media civil again.
Siara Singleton
March 28, 2025
In partnership with
Read time: 5 minutes and 12 seconds
 | You Can’t Change Your DNA. You Can Delete It.23andMe made it easy to uncover your roots and inherited traits, but now the company is in crisis. After a massive data breach, lawsuits, and a plummeting stock price, its future is shaky, and your genetic data is caught in the middle (¹). Let’s be honest: None of us thought through the long game. We just wanted to know if our ancestors were royalty. So we spit in the tube and sent off our most sensitive data. It’s understandable. Only now, we’re seeing the real tradeoff. Customers are being urgently advised to delete their data. |
Legal experts say existing laws like the CCPA and Genetic Information Privacy Act may not be enough to protect your information if the company is sold or dissolved. That’s a problem, because 23andMe is quietly shutting down features and laying off staff.
Why delete your data?
Your DNA can’t be changed like a password or a credit card number.
Hackers have already exploited reused passwords to scrape user profiles for personal information like names, birth years, locations, and genetic ancestry. The 2023 breach exposed information from 6.9 million people.
A future owner may not honor the privacy agreements you agreed to.
We get it, you signed up for 23andMe for a reason; here’s how to keep your data while removing it from their systems (as best you can).
How to save your data:
| How to delete your 23andMe data:
|
Other Precautions:
You can contact support at [email protected] and request full account deletion.
If you choose to download your data, store it in a secure, password-protected or encrypted location.
You can check if you’ve consented to internal research by going to Settings > Research and Product Consents > Edit > Change Consent to opt-out (note: this will not undo past use).
You can also ask 23andMe to destroy your test sample by updating Preferences > Sample Storage to “Permanently Discard Samples.”
It’s easy to forget what we’ve handed over.
This is your reminder to check 🧬
📱 Utah Just Made App Stores the Age Police
A new, first-of-its-kind law in Utah will require app stores like Apple and Google to verify users' age before they can download social media apps. Starting in 2026, the tech giants will need to block underage users or collect verified parental consent (²).
It’s a strategic win for platforms like Meta, which have quietly pushed for the burden to shift to app stores. The move raises serious concerns about privacy and who should be held responsible.
Privacy experts and legal scholars are already warning this could create more problems than it solves, including free speech concerns and murky enforcement. That’s in part because enforcing age checks may require collecting more personal data, and could unintentionally block young people from accessing legal resources like mental health support or educational content.
Still, if it holds, it may spark a wave of copycat laws in other states.
🔐 One Woman vs. Meta, and a Win for Data Privacy
 Headshot of Tanya O’Carroll. | UK privacy advocate Tanya O’Carroll took Meta to court over something most people don’t even realize they can challenge: the company’s assumption that it has the right to use your personal data for targeted ads (³). She argued that under GDPR, she should be able to use Facebook without being tracked. The court agreed. |
The case didn’t just make a point. It cracked open the door for others. Meta had tried to dodge privacy laws by calling ad targeting a “core service,” but the ruling says users still have a right to say no. It’s a reminder that the defaults we’ve accepted, like endless data collection and the lack of real opt-outs, are not always legally sound. Sometimes, all it takes is one person asking the right question.
Tanya stood up to one of the biggest tech companies in the world and proved that meaningful privacy rights still exist.
#002: Curate or Be Curated – Bailey Parnell on Social Media, AI, Mindfulness & Control
On this week’s episode of Log Out, I interviewed Bailey Parnell, founder of the Center for Digital Wellbeing. She’s also a TED speaker, the founder of SkillsCamp, and one of the leading voices in the digital wellness space. She enlightened us with her modern wisdom: |
“Humans forever have been trying to collect our intelligence and pass it on to other humans. Whether that was the stone tablet or the book or a library or a computer, we were trying to collect our intelligence and pass it on to other humans for the success of the species.
[For that reason] I think that AI was always going to happen.”
This was one of many philosophical bombs Bailey dropped during our conversation.
If you like the themes in Black Mirror, want to know the secrets behind social algorithms, and are looking for positive talking points about AI to show off at your next happy hour, this will be a great episode for you.
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 Screenshot of the Sez Us app showing user posts (⁴). | THIS NEW PLATFORM WANTS LESS RAGE BAIT, MORE CIVIL DISCOURSEA new social platform called Sez Us is flipping the script on what it means to “go viral.” Instead of amplifying outrage and conflict, the app’s algorithm prioritizes content that’s thoughtful, calming, and emotionally constructive (⁵). Social media platforms tend to reward the loudest voice in the room, even when it’s intentionally inflammatory. |
Sez Us wants to break that cycle by letting users rate each other’s posts on five qualities: approval, influence, insightfulness, relevance, and politeness.
The hope is that this simple feedback system will encourage people to think twice before inciting arguments or posting inflammatory takes. Instead of chasing outrage, the platform is trying to create space for more thoughtful, civil conversation.
It’s still early, but in a digital world full of rage bait, Sez US is a hopeful experiment in designing tech that actually helps us feel better, not worse.
We hope this issue inspires you to protect your data, screentime, and mental peace.
Now go touch grass.
- Siara
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Have questions, want to contribute to the report, or have a guest suggestion for the Log Out Podcast? Email [email protected].
Sources
(¹) Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe Customers | Press Release from State of California Department of Justice
(²) New Utah Law Makes App Stores Responsible For Age Verification | Tech Crunch
(³) One brave woman wrenched back control of her data from the tech giants. Now, go and do the same | The Guardian
(⁴) Sez Us App | Apple App Store
(⁵) A New Social App is Fighting Rage-Bait | Tech Crunch