23andMe’s demise is a warning: the US needs to overhaul genetic data protection | Dalton Conley

Gene Seymour : 23andMe users should delete their genetic data lest it be acquired by less scrupulous companies.

Seymour: Even if I don't have a rare mutation, my data can predict much about me that would be useful to for-profit companies.

He says public policy solution to this brave new world of genetic prediction might seem simple: amend the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act to cover all these other use scenarios.

Dalton Conley is Henry Putnam university professor of sociology at Princeton University and author of The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture .

He says we're moving toward a society where genetic information is just part of everyday life a geno-society, you might say.

Conley: If we're going to live in a world where people know their risks before the symptoms even show up, we need insurance systems and regulations.