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23nme is cutting 40% of its Workforce to
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stay afloat but many people wonder what
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could happen to the DNA and Health Data
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submitted by customers if the genetic
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testing company collapses the story
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tonight from cbs's Carter Evans Millions
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have used 23 and me to help answer a
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simple question you always wonder you
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know who does make you who you are just
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give us a livea sample and get highly
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sensitive information about your health
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and genealogy but now the company fallen
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on hard times with big layoffs losing
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nearly $6 billion 98% of its value this
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has been a train W situation at 23 and
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me since 23 and me is not a healthc care
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company your DNA data is not protected
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by Health privacy laws but the company
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tells CBS News we have strong customer
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privacy Protections in place and it does
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not share customer data without their
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consent now more and more customers of
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23 and me are saying what happened to my
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data if it goes bankrupt then
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potentially could people buy the data
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23m me's DNA database is arguably its
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biggest asset but for customers that
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information could be their biggest
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liability in a data breach last year
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hacker stole the DNA profiles of nearly
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7 million users do you think people who
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gave their DNA to 23 of me should be
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concerned I would be concerned it's like
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any other form of Digital Data right now
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it's vulnerable worst case scenario your
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DNA could be used against you you might
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be denied a promotion if your employer
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knew that you had some sort of risk
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factor they might not feel that you're
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worth the investment this is not social
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security cards or credit cards we're
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talking about genomic data which is some
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of the most sensitive that any human
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have Now 23 of me tells us that anyone
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can delete their account at any time but
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by law the company has to hold on to
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that Anonymous data for a period of time
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and experts say that even without a name
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attached is still traceable Nora raises
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some really interesting questions Carter
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Evans thank you very much
