Genetic Testing Company Must Issue Refunds After Security Breach Disaster

A researcher inspects samples inside a laboratory at BeiGene Ltd.'s research and development center in Beijing, China, on Thursday, May 24, 2018.the California-based genetic testing company 1Health.io to pay out almost $50,000 in refunds to 2,432 customers. The company left customer data in an unsecured public cloud and wasn’t diligent about its third-party contractors destroying genetic material after they were done with it.

In 2023 the FTC released a complaint against the company alleging a slew of privacy violations. It was a slam dunk case. Vitagene’s website claimed it offered “rock-solid security” and promised to handle a customer’s data and DNA in a responsible manner. It promised to only share customer’s health data in limited circumstances, never store their genetic samples alongside identifying information, and to destroy DNA samples after they were analyzed.

“And in 2020, the company changed its privacy policy by retroactively expanding the types of third parties that it may share consumers’ data with to include, for example, supermarket chains and nutrition and supplement manufacturers—without notifying consumers who had previously shared personal data with the company or obtaining their consent to share such sensitive information, according to the complaint,”...

In addition to the refunds, Vitagene paid a $75,000 fine and has to allow the FTC a closer overview of its business. It’s not allowed to share health data with third parties without the explicit approval of a customer, it must ensure those third parties adhere to a contract, and must tell the FTC if it ever suffers a data breach.

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