What happens to sensitive customer data when a personal genomics firm goes bust? We鈥檙e about to find out: of Reykjavik, Iceland, went bankrupt last week.
Decode鈥檚 demise prompted speculation that its customers鈥� genetic and medical data might be sold on and end up in the hands of an unscrupulous company or individual.
More likely is that the data will be bought back by the company鈥檚 previous investors. However, company spokesman Edward Farmer says that whoever ends up buying the data is 鈥渋mmaterial鈥� to its security because the conditions under which it is held are dictated by Icelandic and European data protection law.
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鈥淭he data are owned by the individuals who provided them and can only be utilised for the specific purpose, whether research or testing, agreed upon with those individuals under the regulatory regimes under which we work,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat means there will be no change in the current arrangements or conditions for oversight of the genetic and medical data.鈥�
However, there is no guarantee that this would be the case if such firms change hands in future, says , a personal genomics specialist at the law firm Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson in Charlotte, North Carolina.
