STORY: After DNA testing firm 23andMe filed for bankruptcy this week, experts say users need to take action to protect their data.

The firm was booming only a few years ago.

But its reputation suffered after a huge tech breach in 2023 that exposed the data of some 7 million customers.

Now CyberScout founder and data protection expert Adam Levin says people need to realise how valuable their DNA data is:

“If this information gets in the wrong hands, if it gets in the hands of a criminal, with all the deepfakes that we have, deepfake audio, deepfake video, and all the different ways that people are trying to be in a position to convince someone else that they’re you, if they have their hands on your DNA, that is a big step toward becoming you in the eyes of someone else.”

Levin says California’s state attorney general has recommended that customers go to their 23andMe account, download their data, and delete it.

Now the future of the firm remains uncertain.

Founder and co-CEO Anne Wojcicki has stepped down for now, but says she intends to make a new takeover bid, after she failed in several previous offers.

Her last offer valued 23andMe at about $11 million, below its current value of $50 million, and a far cry from its $6 billion peak in 2021.

Whoever takes over, they’ll acquire the data held by the company.

However, Pierson Ferdinand lawyer Maryam Meseha says a new owner would be bound by existing terms and conditions:

“So essentially what that means is the acquiring company has to uphold the same standards to the information that 23andMe has already put in place. But users should be cognizant that there likely might be a transfer of that information and understand who that third party acquirer is meant to be.”

Now 23andMe says it will keep operating while it tries to find a buyer.

Though it didn’t say whether there were other interested parties besides Wojcicki.

On Monday, its shares lost nearly half their value following the bankruptcy news.