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Mark Salzman is our friend from the Great White North, the Rock of the North.
Sorry, I happen to be in your fair country right now. Are you yeah?
Are you on the East Coast?
I am. I'm leaving New Jersey.
I I was in New York for an event with a company called High Sense, a big TV company primarily I've probably heard of them. They do my television, Yeah, they do. They have a lot of bang for the buck, you know, like and and big, like eighty five and ten inch TVs Wow without breaking the bank.
Pretty good stuff.
And my one of my twins, Jacob, who's turning twenty three in July, he's never been to New York. So I took him and so we're at in the lounge at Newark and uh yeah, we had a We had a really packed forty eight hours. We did everything from a Knixt game and the MoMA Museum to Central Park in Times Square to Trump Tower and the financial districts.
We had a lot of fun. It was really great.
Did you do the smart hack where you stayed in Hoboken and you had the view of Manhattan.
That's a good hack, but no, we did not, was taken care of by high sense.
But yeah, yeah.
We did turn to Google and say we were going to do Empire State Building. But it was really cloudy and rainy yesterday. So I didn't want to really spend the mifty box each to go if the view is bad. And it's not that I'm cheap, but I just you know, if the view is bad, and then what's why spend the money? So I googled best free view of best view of New York skyline for free, like best balcony view, and it took me to a library that had the
most awful view. It was like a brick wall, Like I have to get in there and like yelp that stuff, because that was not.
What a cruel trick ex New York tourists. You accidentally went to sart has them dot Google dot com?
Yeah yeah, I must have yeah or Snopes you know the anyhow. Yeah it was but it was a really great trip. So yeah, so I was here seeing some new TVs. But you know what's dominating a lot of the tech headlines, Uh are the is this twenty three?
And me bankruptcy, as you know, so I thought we might chat about it to help KFI listeners and iHeart listeners manage their info if they've uploaded their DNA to twenty three and meters probably heard on on Sunday they announced that they're going bankrupt They're filing for Chapter eleven protection, and that they are likely to sell all of their assets, which includes your personal DNA info and health markers unless you delete the information. So, uh, this is It's obviously
an upsetting situation for many. Both twenty three and Me and ancestry dot com are very similar in the sense that it'll help you unlock your family history and find potential relatives, but twenty three and me goes above and beyond that by providing netic health reports and trait reports. So this is even more concerning understandably for many.
Well.
I happened to have used twenty three and meters to find DNA relatives, and I noticed that the site itself went down on Monday. I mean because our Attorney general here in California had suggested people request that their information be deleted, that their saliva sample be destroyed so that it doesn't get lost. What is the concern that what could somebody do with my genetic information?
Yeah?
Yeah, So first of all, you're right that so many people went to the website to delete their information that the servers got overloaded on Tuesday twenty three, and me said, everything's fine, and it's a pretty simple process to download your info and then delete it. So the issue, I think is just that you have no control when a company says we are going we are forced to sell our assets that includes your personal information. We don't know what's going to be done with it. Disgui's a limit,
it's your DNA, you know. I mean, once upon a time, the biggest concern was that, you know, there's going to be a forensics investigation and you're going to have to, you know, inadvertently like tell like that, you know, give information to the police that your cousin is a serial murderer or something. You know, like all this stuff that we gave away that we didn't really realize when we didn't read the t's and c's. But now it seems that, you know, like we don't know who the buyer will
be and what's being done with your personal data. I just think it's disconcerting to not know what's going to happen, you know with it it's your personal DNA markers, right, I mean it can go either way, and without even getting too sci fi, it could be things like cloning, and you know, you never know it's you, it's your sample.
So I don't know why anybody would want that out there.
But yeah, but I mean your point. I think people have a hard time wrapping their head around what could. Yeah, we don't know what the future holds in terms of that kind of TI technology and what it would be used for. And you're saying it's better to be safe than sorry down the road.
Yeah, and I'm not trying to be like purposely vague. It's we just don't know. It's one thing right now, it's our you know, identity theft is very real, and that's without any bio information Like this is just from financial information that you're volunteering. Imagine having your genetic makeup out there.
You know.
It might sound like science fiction, but I think it's just it's just smarter to download and delete the data and you don't have to download it first, by the way, So yeah, if you just want to Google twenty three and meters delete data or just if you've got a good memory, just go to and maybe that's part of
your genetics. Bestive memory is just go to the twenty three and me website, go to settings, click on data, and then view and then you have an option to delete data, and then you're going to be asked to double check it. It'll say permanently delete data, and you'll confirm your requests and then the process is similar for that sample that you mentioned, your saliva sample, you also have to go to settings and then preferences and then.
Delete all that.
It's up to you if you if you don't care, if you're like whatever, you know, let them do what they want with my then you don't have to panic. And I'm not suggesting you panic, but I believe that we should be in control of our information. And yes, we opted for these services like you did, Gary, And I used ancestry dot com and I've found relatives, so I didn't know. I you know, I think there's a
lot of good to these services. But when you hear of a company that goes under that has fifteen million people in its database, that's a little scary.
Well, and I know that there's an option, isn't there to download the information so that I can keep it myself, and then I guess it's similar to what I said was, you know, what would the threat be? What would then I what would I then use my genetic information for. I'm not going to show it at parties or anything.
Yeah, I mean, if you're not using it to find relatives, and if you've already gotten the answers that you wanted about your any health marks that you may be predispositioned for that you may want to act on, then it's just a matter of having it like within your you know, on you and with with within your what's the expression, I'm sorry, uh lock bomb here? Basically, yeah, you can upload it to a secure cloud. You can password protect it and keep it offline. It's basically, you've got it,
you own it. It is not for everyone. If you I mean, I would download it if I had an option, rather than just delete it blindly, just in case you ever need it in the future.
You may have a medical professional that asks.
To see it that could help unlock something that can help you live longer, lives healthier, and they ask for that, Hey, did you ever do any of those DNA taks? Can I see it? And you have a you know, a vetted physician who's able to uh to tell you, you know, to use it responsibly, then you've got it. If you delete it without downloading it, then you don't have anything, right, So I mean, you do it again. If you have to do it again, it's you know, but you already have it.
Yeah, And there's nothing on their website currently, by the way, that says anything about the bankruptcy. It doesn't say anything about what their plan is. You can still buy the packages, at least at least they're still advertising.
Right, Yeah, exactly exactly. They did just confirmed that they have to. The quote is that they are going to be quote substantially selling all of our assets through a quarter tru of reorganization plan.
That's all they've said that.
It sounds like they're still selling their kits, you know. But yeah, good old Sunnyvale, California company. So we'll see what's going to happen, and we'll see what's going to happen ancestry dot com. But you know, don't panic. But just I would just be responsible and download your info. It's pretty easy to do so at the website.
Hey, and also, don't panic if you missed the flight. Because you stay in the United States long enough, we'll escort you out, just so you know exactly.
Yeah, you know, ice is breathing down my neck.
Right, Mark Saltzman, thank you so much, safe travels, I hope time.
Than keep for having me. Well chat next Thursday as well.
You bet.
Follow Mark on X of course, m A r C Underscore Saltzman. He's got great tech tips and he's also the host of the tech it Out podcasting