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The Reinvented 23andme

Jun20

My cousin Corinne tantalized me by showing me some of the interesting new features at 23andme, so I bought the currently discounted upgrade and soon sent in a new vial of spit. As the email I got pointed out, my test used an older chip and more information is available on the newer one. Father’s Day is the last day for the current special.

Next I opted into the subscription for Premium Plus membership which provides clustering,  historical matches, reconstructed ancestors, and many more matches as well as updated haplogroup information. One of the main things I wanted was the ability to get the exact segments where my relatives match me in a chromosome browser; a feature that had been turned off after the break-ins a while back. You cannot download all your segment data but you can view up to 5 relatives compared to yourself or someone else you match. You can get to that comparison by clicking on the blue “Compare with more relatives” at the bottom of the panel which shows your DNA chromosomes with shared DNA. Then at the bottom of the comparison page you can get the exact numbers.

The top of an example comparison page, my dad to multiple relatives. Notice that it indicates that he shares one fully identical segment with his nephew PG (on the X as shown below)

I have written many blog posts about using segment data (click here). I maintain a spreadsheet for all my dad’s segment matches and note where my brother or I have the same match, as well as other known relatives. Often I can tell what ancestral line a new match is on from their matching segment information. I have alot of updating to do now that this feature is back!

At the bottom of the images of chromosomes and segments there is the numerical data, which can be cut and pasted into a spreadsheet

You can also get to the attractive new clustering page from the relatives in common section of the match page as shown below. I have many blog posts about clustering (click here). An advantage of the 23andme implementation is that you can adjust the parameters. Probably I will need to play with it more and give it its own blog post.

Example of relatives in common buttons to cousin Elizabeth

One of the other new features that I was interested in was the comparison to ancient DNA, in other words to ancient bodies whose DNA has been sequenced.  I was rewarded by discovering that I share a piece of DNA with Otzi the Iceman! Small but exciting.

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23andMe Update

Sep25

23andMe is now owned by​ Anne Wojcicki’s new non-profit The 23andMe Research Institute. An email has gone out to all of us users (see next page) explaining this, which also makes it clear that the focus will be on discovering the health issues in our DNA. Click here for my previous post on 23andme explaining why ​Anne has this interest. 

While crowd sourcing DNA health issues is certainly a worthy cause, it is not the main interest for many of us. Most of my readers consider genetic genealogy a tool to find relatives and uncover family stories.

How the former chromosome browser at 23andme looked comparing a new match to me and my family

The feature I miss the most at 23andme is the chromosome browser that showed ​where my genome matched that of my relatives. Because I have collected an excel file of all my father’s matches with notations as to which I or my brother share, I could frequently tell which family line a new match belonged to,  even a one segment match with no clear relatives in common. ​ Click here for the blog post where I discuss this.

I no longer recommend testing at 23andme unless you want health results or are an adoptee and thus need to test everywhere.

The next page has the text of the email they have sent all of us users.

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23andme: Don’t panic

Mar28

Filing for bankruptcy does not change the day to day operations at a company nor put your data at more risk than before. Plus, as I have said previously, your DNA is not your social security number nor your bank account; it is more like a giant fingerprint that identifies you. Thus I do not recommend deleting your data at 23andme. Many journalists these days try to increase clicks by fear mongering.

My take on these latest developments is that by declaring bankruptcy and stepping down as CEO, Anne E. Wojcicki gives herself one more chance to buy the company she founded with two others and take it private. Her previous two proposals were turned down by each board of directors.

I have listed some more balanced news sources and blog posts at the end of this article.


A short history of 23andme seems in order. Founded by Wojcicki and two others in 2006 [source: wikipedia article], it was the first place to test your personal genome. Their focus was, and always has been, discovering the medical issues in your own DNA, inspired by the search for the cause of Parkinson’s which Anne’s mother-in-law was diagnosed with. Some discoveries have been made and are discussed here.

​However, the desire to understand one’s personal health risks was never as strong as the desire to uncover one’s roots, particularly for Americans. Plus the business model of selling DNA kits was never as successful as the model at genealogy-focused companies which include family trees and records once you have a paid subscription. Access to DNA health data for pharmaceutical companies was not lucrative enough to make up the difference.

The lack of financial success was compounded by a data breach that ensued from users who reuse passwords. This allowed bad actors to gain access and create lists of users with Jewish or Chinese ancestry. Although those are reputedly for sale on the dark web, I have not yet heard of any dire outcomes. The result is that all the DNA companies now use two-factor authentication.

​Not surprisingly, 23andme stock plummeted. User lawsuits resulted in a settlement. Anne E. Wojcicki, who owns a 49% share, made an offer to buy the company and take it private but the board turned her down and resigned. The next board also turned down the offer she made a few months later. By declaring bankruptcy and resigning as CEO, perhaps she can finally buy it.

Various news and blog sources:

By the way, the California Attorney General did NOT recommend that you delete your 23andme data, he just explained how and reminded us of the strong California privacy and data laws. Click here for what he actually sent.

23andme: Now and Then

Sep23

23andme started out by being a leader in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic testing business. Time Magazine named it the 2008 Invention of the Year![1] It was the first place I tested my own autosomal DNA and that of many family members back in 2011-2012. Originally it had the best cousin matching tools, best ethnicity estimates, and had a well designed interface to examine the health implications in your own genome. Now I recommend to most that they start with Ancestry DNA and then upload that data to several other sites, including Promethease for the medical analysis, although 23andme still tests a wider range of health related genes.

23andme has been in the news this week because its entire board, except its founder, Anne Wojcicki, resigned over her plan to take it private again. It went public in 2021 but has yet to turn a profit and the WSJ reports that it will run out of cash next year [ref WSJ]. However there is at least one company interested in buying it according to a post on the DNA-Newbie list.

How should those of us who have tests there react to this news? Personally I am not worried, mainly because I hardly ever use the site anymore. I have long since downloaded my data and have contacted most of my closer matches. Roberta Estes has done a thorough blog post (click here) explaining how to save your data from 23andme.

The reason I rarely use 23andme is because it no longer allows you to compare your DNA to a relative in a chromosome browser; the feature I liked the best. I now do that at GEDmatch, Family Tree DNA, and MyHeritage. That tool was removed because of a data breach over a year ago where a hacker got lists of Jewish and Chinese testers and posted them for sale on the dark web. The break-in took advantage of users who had the same email and password on multiple sites, some of which had been exposed elsewhere.

Perhaps it is the resulting class action suit that caused part of 23andme’s financial woes. Click here for an article about how that is being settled with users.

My understanding was that the inspiration for the founding of 23andme was that Genia Brin, the mother of the then husband of founder Anne Wojcicki, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1998 [ref michaelfox org]. The focus of 23andme has always been on discovering the genetic basis of various medical issues, not genealogy. However they have been quite supportive of adoptees (click here), since it is helpful to know what issues may lie in your DNA when you have no known family health history.

One way to look at the genetic basis of various diseases is to crowd-source lots of genomes.

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Much Ado About DNA Hacking

Nov8

The recent panic about hacking at 23andme in the press seems overblown to me. What exactly would someone do with my DNA? There is nothing in there of any monetary value nor do I have health risks that need to be private. Perhaps knowing which celebrities are Jewish or Chinese might be of use to some bad actors. The fact is that those lists are for sale on the dark web. Click here for an interesting article about that.
We have all been advised to guard our online privacy but our DNA is not our social security number nor our credit card so I am not worried about this yet. The hackers were able to use login credentials that were leaked from other sites to access those people’s accounts at 23andme. Then they could see information about other 23andme users whose DNA matched the compromised account. The type of information exposed was ethnicity, other relatives, and family tree information, plus whatever you said about yourself. This does not seem worrisome to me. My actual DNA was not exposed and even if it were, it would take a very DNA savvy hacker to use it to create a fake relative of mine.

Most of the DNA sites are now forcing two factor authentication (2FA) on their users when they log in. That is where a text or an email is sent to you when you log in to be sure it is you. This should prevent “credential stuffing” hacks in the future. If you try to log into 23andme, you will also discover that you must now change your password there. If your relative is deceased and their email of record is no longer available you may be out of luck. Perhaps customer service can help you.

Here is the text of the recent email all my Jewish accounts received:

“Specifically, there was unauthorized access to one or more 23andMe accounts that were connected to you through DNA Relatives. As a result, the DNA Relatives profile information you provided in this feature was exposed to the threat actor.”

The moral of this story is not to use the same passwords on more than one site. Several of my favorite passwords were leaked in various hospital system breaches. Google is kind enough to tell me when I try to log in to a site with a compromised password. My recommendation is to use several passwords which you vary by including a 2 or 3 character indicator of the site name.  So for example add “23m” somewhere in your 23 and me password. Most of us have browsers which remember our passwords for us and if they forget, we can use the forgot password link or have the site text us a code. I keep a text file of my passwords with written descriptions of which password used rather than spelling them out. Naturally I use unique, different, and difficult passwords with 2 factor security on sites that access money.

Personally, I am not leaving 23andme although I did change my password there. I am sad that many of the features that I love, like the DNA comparison tools, are temporarily closed down. I look forward to their return once the breach has been understood and dealt with.