Who is impacted?
Over 15 million people who trusted 23andMe with their most private biological data are now at risk. With the company’s bankruptcy, their DNA profiles — including ancestry, health predispositions, and biometric identity — are being sold to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Most users never consented to their genetic data being transferred, sold, or absorbed into a new corporate owner. This isn't just a privacy issue — it's about bodily autonomy and consent.

What is at stake?
If this sale proceeds, it sets a dangerous precedent: that our DNA — our literal blueprint — can be bought, sold, and owned without our say. Genetic data is immutable. Once it's out of our control, it can be exploited for insurance discrimination, surveillance, targeted pharma, or behavioral profiling. This would be one of the largest known transfers of human biometric data in history — and it would happen without renewed permission from a single user.

Why is now the time to act?
The sale is moving quickly. Without public pressure or legal intervention, millions of DNA profiles will be permanently absorbed into a system users never agreed to. We must act now to stop the transfer, demand an injunction, and push for the destruction of this data under independent audit. If we fail to speak up, we allow corporations to own the most sacred parts of human life: who we are, where we come from, and what we may become.

**Sign now to tell regulators, courts, and the world:
Our DNA is not for sale.

🧬 What’s Going On?
23andMe, a company millions of people trusted with their DNA, is being sold to another corporation — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. That means your genetic data could be handed over to a company you’ve never agreed to work with.

 
🔐 What’s at Risk?
Your DNA contains everything about you — your ancestry, your disease risks, your traits, even possible future behaviors.
Once this data is sold, you can’t take it back.
It could be used for:

Marketing drugs
Raising your insurance rates
Profiling you without your knowledge
 
❓Didn’t I Agree to That?
Not really.

Most users gave consent to 23andMe, under certain conditions.
But this sale hands your data to a completely different company, under completely different intentions.

That’s like giving your doctor your records — and then having them sold to a pharmaceutical company without your permission.
 
🛑 Why This Sale Must Be Stopped
This sets a dangerous precedent: that your body’s code can be bought and sold.
It shows that in bankruptcy, human data is treated like office furniture.
If we don’t act now, this could happen again — with your health data, your child’s DNA, or your biometric scans.
 
✊ What You Can Do
Sign petitions to halt the sale
Contact your state attorney general
Demand your data be deleted by logging into your 23andMe account
Share this story — most users don’t even know it’s happening.

Subject: URGENT — Legal and Ethical Grounds to Halt the Sale of 23andMe’s Genetic Database

 
🎯 Summary:
Over 15 million user DNA profiles are being transferred to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals via a $256M acquisition of 23andMe following bankruptcy.
This is not a routine business transaction. It is a mass transfer of biometric identity — data that is immutable, personal, and potentially re-identifiable.
 
⚖️ Legal Concerns:
Violation of Informed Consent: Users provided DNA under specific privacy terms. A third-party transfer of this data exceeds those terms and may violate contract law and ethical research standards.
California Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA):

Prohibits sale or transfer of genetic information without explicit written consent.
23andMe is based in CA and subject to these protections.
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA):

Users have the right to opt out of data sales and request deletion.
Bankruptcy does not nullify privacy rights under CA law.
Federal Precedent — Carpenter v. United States (2018):

Affirms that deeply personal digital data demands heightened protection.
DNA, as biometric identity, surpasses even location data in sensitivity.
 
🧨 Irreparable Harm:
Genetic data cannot be changed — once sold, individuals lose permanent control.
Risk of misuse includes:

Predictive health discrimination
Targeted pharma exploitation
Future state surveillance
De-anonymization via public or corporate datasets
 
📣 Call to Action:
We urge the following:

A temporary injunction to halt the data transfer
Legal review under state and federal consumer protection laws
Support for a user-led data destruction and ethical wind-down
Media transparency: this is a biometric rights crisis, not just a failed tech sale
Genetic data is not a company asset — it is a person.