Freakonomics Radio
23andMe (and You, and Everyone Else)
The revolution in home DNA testing is giving consumers important, possibly life-changing information. It’s also building a gigantic database that could lead to medical breakthroughs. But how will you deal with upsetting news? What if your privacy is compromised? And are you prepared to have your DNA monetized? We speak with Anne Wojcicki, founder and CEO of 23andMe.
Published in
8 min readMay 17, 2019
In 2018, police in Sacramento, California, arrested a man who’d been eluding them for decades. The Golden State Killer, as he’d been known, was responsible for more than a dozen murders and 50 rapes. Detectives had uploaded a DNA sample from the suspect to an open source website called GEDmatch. The site lets anyone upload raw DNA data from home genetics-testing companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.com; at least 24 of the suspect’s relatives were included in the GEDmatch database. By cross-referencing the suspect’s DNA data against Census data and cemetery records, the police were able to confirm they had the right guy.
A bunch of civilians looking to fill out their family trees had inadvertently…
