• StraightUpSearch, Friday, April 11, 2008 1:15 PM

Keirsun Scott does a deep dig into the goings-on at 23AndMe, the Web-based genetic research firm that Google invested some $4 million in last year. The company is the brainchild of Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google founder Sergei Brin.

Wojcicki, Brin and Arthur Levinson (an exec on Google's Board of Directors, and CEO of Genentech, also one of 23AndMe's investors) each own significant stakes in the genetic research firm--and Scott wonders whether their shares count as a majority stake. He also wonders whether Google's shares count as a majority stake--and if so, whether that gives the search giant access to any of the genetic data being mapped and stored, or the users' PII.

Scott cites 23AndMe's privacy policy, which affirms that users' PII won't be shared--but does acknowledge that the firm may enter into "partnerships with commercial and/or non-profit organizations that conduct scientific and/or medical research." Meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently declined to comment about 23AndMe's business, future products, or the company's relationship with Google, though he did allow that the investment "would eventually benefit Google and its users."

"If Google were able to combine the immense amounts of user data they collect right now with the health and medical data that could potentially be gathered from Google Health AND combine that with data potentially available to them through 23andMe, a person's Google profile could be a dangerous thing," Scott concludes. "What if this hypothetical Google profile ever got into the hands of a health insurance provider? Could you be denied coverage based on a genetic predisposition to cancer?"

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