Great find. I suppose this is either a glitch or maybe they're doing some sort of pricing experimentation. Either way, my father has been wanting to do this for a while so I think $49 seals the deal!
Looks like maybe they are doing some A/B testing based on the way this site responds. Regardless $49 instead of $299 (The first price I got in incognito) is extremely significant.
I did 23andme a year or two ago. I found out I have a really boring genome. No real diseases or unexpected ancestry (I guess I was secretly hoping I was adopted from Russian/Jewish royalty or martians or something?).
It's certainly worth $49 to me to know this (I think I paid $99 under a FNF deal a while ago; I know one of the founders, who is awesome and a great entrepreneur).
Yeah, they're pretty decent people. I'm sure if the government went to them with a warrant or something, they'd fully comply, but they genuinely care about privacy and customers, and would be unlikely to do anything evil. They're also rich enough that I doubt they'd be forced into a sale to some crappy entity who would then abuse things, and their privacy policy is decent enough.
The only real risk I see is if your account is compromised somehow, but at least for me, there's nothing so sensitive in my account that I'd care.
What I want to know is, who they share the data with? Do the insurance companies get our genome?
Come on people, there should be no more precious data to you, than the genome of you and your family. Yet facebook users seem more concerned about their social network privacy than HN members are about their genome privacy.
For insurance companies, this could be a total actuarial GOLDMINE and it would probably even be worth them paying us for the data.
Note that in 13 months (in the US) pre-existing conditions will no longer be excludable (subject to a few complexities, yada yada). That rules out the worst potential abuse. It's unclear to me how "insurance company" access to this data would even be an inarguably bad thing. I can see a lot of good resource planning that could come from a large body of genome data.
It's OK. Nobody gets your genome. It would be suicidal for them to share, plus there are laws on the books (GINA at the federal level, a stronger law recently passed in CA).
Also, quite a few people have been posting their data openly, for example here: http://opensnp.org/ . So far I am not aware of any adverse effects. Not saying there won't be any ever, but I would be a lot more paranoid about my browser history.
23andMe research may involve collaboration with external parties; however, these external parties will only have access to pooled data stripped of identifying information. 23andMe will never release your individual-level data to any third party without asking for and receiving your explicit authorization to do so.
As part of our commitment to protecting the privacy of our research participants, we have also obtained a Certificate of Confidentiality from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This certificate allows 23andMe to protect research participants’ data from involuntary disclosure, including subpoenas from federal, state, and local authorities.
>Do the insurance companies get our genome?
They're not allowed to discriminate based on genetic predisposition, and based on the privacy policy, they're not going to get that info anyways.
It is nice that their website includes reassuring language. But really, how stable is that policy in the face of changing corporate owners, changing political administration (romney?), changing supreme court justices, changing geopolitics?
Genome data is of permanent importance. To be able to, even in 50 years, look back at genome records of today, will still be very valuable (especially when combined with genealogy records...).
Look at privacy trends, storage trends, and trends in govt accountability and transparency. Make no mistake, once our sequences are in corporate databases, there is no going back.
I look forward to user-driven cryptographic genome tools, which will allow us to inspect our own genomes, while maintaining personal control over our entire genome (ie., never having to hand the whole sequence over to a commercial or govt entity).
>But really, how stable is that policy in the face of changing corporate owners, changing political administration (romney?), changing supreme court justices, changing geopolitics?
That's a valid point, but a few things reassure me. Firstly that confidentiality cert from DHHS probably isn't going to be made useless by a political entity any time soon (and I'd assume, though would need to research, that such a cert would also apply to any buyers should 23AM get picked up by someone else, and probably carries some requirements for them as well)
Even then, I doubt within the next 60 or so years left on my lifespan that there will be any shenanigans in that area... and after I'm gone, they can do whatever the hell they want with my sequence :)
I'd imagine that, given enough time and cost reduction, services like this will become nationalized, where your genome is sequenced at birth for identity and health purposes.
Yeah, you're right. Though I'm generally curious and I'd like to know more about this part of me, scientifically. Is there some other way I can find that?
And as for insurance, I think that applies in the US where insurance companies are, well, evil. In AU, or CAN or some other country where medicine is provided to everyone, this actually seems like GOOD information to have on hand.
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act[1] was passed 4 years ago. It makes it illegal for insurance companies and employers to discriminate based on genetic information.
In the long-term, it's unlikely that you'll be able hide your genome. Sequencing technology is only going to get cheaper and more advanced. People slough off cells like crazy. You'll have to live in a spacesuit if you want to avoid leaving your genetic information everywhere.
To be fair, the charge includes both shipping the kits to you and for you to ship the kits back to them, so the price isn't as bad as it looks. But I do agree with you that it can be lower.
I wonder what their threshold is for offering this as the permanent price? I know I've never considered it before b/c of the price. Heck, I didn't consider it when I got the $99 offer. But when I got $49, I ordered two.
It used to be back when the $299 price was offered that you had to pay $99 for a year of subscription to their annotation updates, not sure what's going on now.
Hmmm...not sure I'd care about the updates nearly as much as the initial profile. Does anyone see value from the updates? What kind of information do those provide?
I just bought the kit for Australia - it was $49 + $74 shipping, the updates are _not_ included - in fact, I think they stopped offering these.
The value used to be that you get the newest research linked to your SNPs, i.e., if there's a new publication on one of your variations you would have been notified.
Seems like the deal's over. I've now hit the homepage ~50 times with a new incognito window each time and the price was always $299.
Too bad, it would've been nice.
They offer a full exome sequencing for $999 in a pilot right now, so for a full genome 30x sequencing for 50 bucks you might have to sleep a decade or so
Maybe I've been watching too much Dexter, but isn't this a law enforcement agency's dream? Never again will they fail to get a match on DNA, just subpoena 23andme and competitors.
Nope. Someone posted a link above[1] to what I assume is a 23andme FAQ response, stating that they have a Certificate of Confidentiality from the (US) government.
According to this NIH page on said certificates[2], it sounds like even if they were served a subpoena for the information, 23andme could still tell them to fuck off.
I thought it was interesting that I saw the full price flash on the screen briefly before I saw my discounted price so I looked into the JS and sure enough they are swapping out offer urls that look like this: /special_offer/49NOV2012/?json=true
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 157 ms ] threadI had to keep closing and creating a new incognito window, not just new tabs.
It's cheaper to create a new account then to upgrade my old account for $249.
You get more SNPs if you have V2 and they add in V3, so I'll call them and see if I can link it to my account.
Here are the SNP counts per chip version combo:
V2 only: 576,000 SNPs V3 only: 967,000 SNPs V2 + V3 (upgraded): 996,000 SNPs
It's certainly worth $49 to me to know this (I think I paid $99 under a FNF deal a while ago; I know one of the founders, who is awesome and a great entrepreneur).
The only real risk I see is if your account is compromised somehow, but at least for me, there's nothing so sensitive in my account that I'd care.
What I want to know is, who they share the data with? Do the insurance companies get our genome?
Come on people, there should be no more precious data to you, than the genome of you and your family. Yet facebook users seem more concerned about their social network privacy than HN members are about their genome privacy.
For insurance companies, this could be a total actuarial GOLDMINE and it would probably even be worth them paying us for the data.
Also, quite a few people have been posting their data openly, for example here: http://opensnp.org/ . So far I am not aware of any adverse effects. Not saying there won't be any ever, but I would be a lot more paranoid about my browser history.
Did you read the privacy policy? Specifically:
https://customercare.23andme.com/entries/21262376-how-is-the...
23andMe research may involve collaboration with external parties; however, these external parties will only have access to pooled data stripped of identifying information. 23andMe will never release your individual-level data to any third party without asking for and receiving your explicit authorization to do so. As part of our commitment to protecting the privacy of our research participants, we have also obtained a Certificate of Confidentiality from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This certificate allows 23andMe to protect research participants’ data from involuntary disclosure, including subpoenas from federal, state, and local authorities.
>Do the insurance companies get our genome?
They're not allowed to discriminate based on genetic predisposition, and based on the privacy policy, they're not going to get that info anyways.
https://www.23andme.com/about/privacy/#Full
It's pretty clear on what they choose to share.
It is nice that their website includes reassuring language. But really, how stable is that policy in the face of changing corporate owners, changing political administration (romney?), changing supreme court justices, changing geopolitics?
Genome data is of permanent importance. To be able to, even in 50 years, look back at genome records of today, will still be very valuable (especially when combined with genealogy records...).
Look at privacy trends, storage trends, and trends in govt accountability and transparency. Make no mistake, once our sequences are in corporate databases, there is no going back.
I look forward to user-driven cryptographic genome tools, which will allow us to inspect our own genomes, while maintaining personal control over our entire genome (ie., never having to hand the whole sequence over to a commercial or govt entity).
That's a valid point, but a few things reassure me. Firstly that confidentiality cert from DHHS probably isn't going to be made useless by a political entity any time soon (and I'd assume, though would need to research, that such a cert would also apply to any buyers should 23AM get picked up by someone else, and probably carries some requirements for them as well)
Even then, I doubt within the next 60 or so years left on my lifespan that there will be any shenanigans in that area... and after I'm gone, they can do whatever the hell they want with my sequence :)
I'd imagine that, given enough time and cost reduction, services like this will become nationalized, where your genome is sequenced at birth for identity and health purposes.
And as for insurance, I think that applies in the US where insurance companies are, well, evil. In AU, or CAN or some other country where medicine is provided to everyone, this actually seems like GOOD information to have on hand.
In the long-term, it's unlikely that you'll be able hide your genome. Sequencing technology is only going to get cheaper and more advanced. People slough off cells like crazy. You'll have to live in a spacesuit if you want to avoid leaving your genetic information everywhere.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimi...
That said, hopefully they do some A/B testing on shipping prices next ;)
The value used to be that you get the newest research linked to your SNPs, i.e., if there's a new publication on one of your variations you would have been notified.
Got mine for $49. Note once you get $49, you can order multiple kits at that same price point.
Edit: ftp://ftp.1000genomes.ebi.ac.uk/vol1/ftp/ <-- gimme this for $49
http://www.genomicslawreport.com/index.php/2012/11/29/dna-dt...
>Whole exomes ($695 at 80x coverage) and genomes ($5,495 at 30x coverage) are both listed as available products.
Right?
According to this NIH page on said certificates[2], it sounds like even if they were served a subpoena for the information, 23andme could still tell them to fuck off.
[1] https://customercare.23andme.com/entries/21262376-how-is-the...
[2] http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/coc/background.htm
You can empty the cart and run
Then click add to cart and once in your cart it will be $49.I'm going to have to start looking at more websites' Optimizely codes!
https://www.23andme.com/special_offer/49NOV2012/
Anyone else having any luck?