23andMe users struggle to delete their highly sensitive data

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday in order to sell itself through a court-supervised process.

"If 23andMe is going to be sold, then my data can be sold, from what I hear," said 52 year old Danielle Landriscina of Maryland. Ms Landriscina signed up for 23andMe in 2018 to connect with members of her father's side of the family.

"What's stopping something like a health insurance company from buying my data and then using it to determine if I get health insurance or how much I have to pay for it?," added Ms Landriscina, who works in tech sales.

For now, 23andMe "will not voluntarily share your Personal Information" with insurance companies, the company's current privacy statement says.

But the future is less certain. 23andMe's proposed May 14 auction of its assets could include the genetic data of its millions of customers.

To protect herself, Ms Landriscina said she tried multiple times to log into her 23andMe account starting on Tuesday morning, both on her phone and through a web browser.

According to 23andMe, any buyer of the company will have to abide by laws that apply to how customer's data is treated, and any transaction will be subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Customers who previously asked 23andMe to store a DNA sample can ask that it be destroyed.

For users who opted into 23andMe's research programme, personal information will no longer be used in future research projects, the company said.

23andMe's said it would continue to protect customer data as laid out in its privacy policy.

But it acknowledged that if it was "involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, your Personal Information may be accessed, sold or transferred as part of that transaction."

It says its privacy statement will apply to personal information when transferred to the new entity.

"A new company would have to continue to manage customer data under the privacy policy," said Anya Prince, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law.

But, Prince notes, the company also says it "may make changes" to its privacy statement "from time to time," leaving the door open to a new company altering how it manages customer data.