Hawley Holds 23andMe CEO’s Feet to the Fire for Hoarding Consumers’ Personal Information Ahead of Bankruptcy Sale

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Thursday, June 12, 2025
In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)criticizedJoseph Selsavage—the Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial and Accounting Officer of ancestry service 23andMe—for his company’s lack of transparency inretainingconsumers’ information ahead of its imminent bankruptcy sale.
“I hope [consumers] will rush to the court house, even as we are here today, to sue you into oblivion,”Senator Hawley said to Selsavage, who failed to provide an adequate explanation for 23andMe’s byzantine privacy policy.The CEO ultimately admitted that 23andMe does, in fact, retain customers’ personal information—even after consumers opt to delete it.
The CEO of 23andMe just got exposed. They KEEP your genetic information, even if you “delete” it. And now they’re about to sell it.23&Me hasn’t been honest to their customers or the public. I hope consumers sue them into oblivionpic.twitter.com/fmzO5P3YaH
“What you’re doing here has all kinds of implications—national security implications, all of it—but nothing is worse than taking the personal, identifiable information of American consumers and keeping it, and lying to them about it, while you make a huge profit off of it,”the Senator continued.
Senator Hawley also called out Selsavage for repeatedly looking to his legal counsel throughout the course of their exchange:“Don’t talk to your suit behind you. Talk to me.”
Watch the full videohere.
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