U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley held a Judiciary Committee hearing about the company 23andMe earlier this month. When asked why the hearing was held, and what was learned from the testimony Grassley said,“Now 23andMe is in bankruptcy, and when you are in bankruptcy and have information that has an economic value. We are afraid that if somebody buys 23andMe that your (23andMe users) privacy will be abused, and the hearing would bring attention to it. Now, maybe since our hearing, I have read in the paper that the person that started 23andMe is maybe able to take control of the company again and get it out of bankruptcy. And then if that happens, we don’t have anything to worry about. But if some other company were to buy it they could sell this material that could have the personal information about you in it, and could violate your privacy. And we had the hearing from the standpoint of a national security problem.  

Currently, no federal privacy or bankruptcy laws protect genomic data. Grassley is cosponsoring the bipartisan Don’t Sell My DNA Act to protect sensitive genetic data during corporate bankruptcy proceedings.