#Genetic data site #openSNP to close and delete data over #privacy concerns
openSNP, a platform for sharing genetic and phenotypic data, will shut down, and delete all user submissions over privacy concerns and risk of misuse by authoritarian governments.
Announced earlier this week by co-founder Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, who expressed concerns about how personal #genomics data is subject to abuse today and how fundamentally landscape has changed over the last 14 years.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/genetic-data-site-opensnp-to-close-and-delete-data-over-privacy-concerns/

Bleeping Computer: Genetic data site openSNP to close and delete data over privacy concerns. “The openSNP project, a platform for sharing genetic and phenotypic data, will shut down on April 30, 2025, and delete all user submissions over privacy concerns and the risk of misuse by authoritarian governments.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/03/bleeping-computer-genetic-data-site-opensnp-to-close-and-delete-data-over-privacy-concerns/

#Genetic data repo #OpenSNP to self-destruct before authoritarians weaponize it
The reason, according to #bioinformatics researcher Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, one of the founders of the project, is the dissolution of genetic testing biz #23andMe and the potential weaponization of genetic data by #farright #authoritarian regimes.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/opensnp_shutdown/

I've got a lot of thoughts about this, but the overriding one is gratitude that these folks finally woke up.

"Tzovaras had hoped that access to genetic data would improve human health and medicine, but now considers that aspiration naive. His 'bleaker' and more 'sober' view today is that providing food security and access to stable housing would have a more significant impact on human health than finding genetic answers to common diseases that follow from social and environmental problems, such as food and housing insecurity."

#openSNP
#genetics
#23andMe
#USPol

Genetic data sharing service openSNP to close down
https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/opensnp_shutdown/

Open Source Genetic Database OpenSNP Shuts Down to Protect Users From 'Authoritarian Governments' #OpenSNP #GeneticTesting #privacy #authoritarian #fascist

https://www.404media.co/open-source-genetic-database-opensnp-shuts-down-to-protect-users-from-authoritarian-governments/

The creator of an open source genetic database is
👉shutting it down and deleting all of its data
because he has come to believe that its existence is dangerous due to
🔥 “a rise in far-right and other authoritarian governments” in the United States and elsewhere.

“The largest use case for DTC genetic data was not biomedical research or research in big pharma,” Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, the founder of #OpenSNP, wrote in a blog post.

“Instead, the transformative impact of the data came to fruition among law enforcement agencies,
who have put the genealogical properties of genetic data to use.”

OpenSNP has collected roughly 7,500 genomes over the last 14 years,
primarily by allowing people to voluntarily submit their own genetic information they have downloaded from 23andMe.

With the bankruptcy of 23andMe,
increased interest in genetic data by law enforcement,
and the return of Donald Trump and rise of authoritarian governments worldwide,
Greshake Tzovaras told 404 Media he no longer believes it is ethical to run the database

https://www.404media.co/open-source-genetic-database-opensnp-shuts-down-to-protect-users-from-authoritarian-governments/

Open Source Genetic Database Shuts Down to Protect Users From 'Authoritarian Governments'

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.404media.co/open-source-genetic-database-opensnp-shuts-down-to-protect-users-from-authoritarian-governments/

Sunsetting #openSNP - a retrospective by Bastian Greshake Tzovaras
In 2025, Bastian's "view is a lot more sober (and bleaker): Today it seems clear to me that the biggest impact on improving #health - even in the rich, allegedly ‘developed’ nations - would come from providing #food security and access to stable housing. And not from trying to find #genetic confounders of common #diseases that are a lot more rooted in those environmental & societal factors."
https://tzovar.as/sunsetting-opensnp/

@gedankenstuecke Lucky me then 😉 #OpenSNP (https://opensnp.org/) for the win!
The extra information such as family trees may involve people who have not shared their DNA on 23andMe though, so using MFA or similar to prevent stuffing attacks wouldn't hurt.