[kian]

23AndMe, which is located in California, claims on their website that they are required to maintain any information from genetic tests indefinitely. How is Probably Genetic able to 'destroy samples and data' on more than a soft-delete basis?

[astroH]

Apologies for not getting to this earlier. Our in-house GC is est fit to answer this; however, as far as I am aware, CLIA only requires that we keep samples until the analysis is complete and results are returned to patients. They recommend that one keeps this as long as possible. The other thing is the difference between a report and raw data. I believe that we are supposed to hold onto reports for 21 years, some states have slightly different regulations but that's different from raw data. We are also a physician-ordered LDT while 23andme is FDA approved so there are differences there as well.