I gave my DNA to tracking company

A DNA-testing agency seems to have ceased buying and selling – with out telling its prospects what has occurred to the extremely delicate information they shared with it.

Atlas Biomed, which has workplaces in London, provided to supply insights into individuals’s genetic make up in addition to their predisposition to sure sicknesses.

Nevertheless, customers are now not in a position to entry their personalised stories on-line and the corporate has not responded to the BBC’s requests for remark.

Clients of the agency describe the scenario as “very alarming” and say they need solutions about what has occurred to their “most private data”.

The regulator, the Data Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO), has confirmed it has obtained a grievance about Atlas Biomed.

“Folks have the appropriate to anticipate that organisations will deal with their private data securely and responsibly,” it stated in an announcement.

Consultants say it reveals how customers of DNA-testing companies can discover themselves “utterly on the mercy” of such firms on the subject of defending very delicate information.

Lisa Topping, from Saffron Walden, Essex, despatched a saliva pattern to Atlas Biomed a number of years in the past, paying round £100 for a personalised genetic report.

In addition to telling her about her DNA profile, it claimed to additionally inform her about her predisposition to illnesses and even accidents, considering data she had offered in an accompanying questionnaire.

She might entry her report on-line – which she checked every so often – till at some point the web site disappeared. She acquired no reply when she contacted them to ask what had occurred.

“I don’t know what another person might do with [the data] nevertheless it’s probably the most private data… I don’t understand how comfy I really feel that they’ve simply disappeared,” Lisa informed me.

In 2023, Kate Lake from Tonbridge, Kent, paid Atlas Biomed £139 for a report it by no means delivered.

It promised her a refund – then went silent, regardless of her making an attempt each technique of contact she might discover.

“I simply by no means heard again from anybody, it’s like no-one was at dwelling,” she stated.

She describes the scenario as “very alarming.”

“What occurs now to that data they have? I wish to hear some solutions,” she stated.

The BBC was additionally unable to contact Atlas Biomed.

A telephone quantity listed for the corporate is lifeless. The BBC visited its workplaces in London, however there was no signal of Atlas Biomed there.

The agency’s Instagram account, with over 11,000 followers, was final up to date in March 2022. Its closing submit on X was in August the identical yr.

It shared a submit on Fb in June 2023, however didn’t reply to any of the feedback – which have been full of individuals complaining about being unable to contact it or entry their profiles.

The obvious disappearance of Atlas Biomed is a thriller – nevertheless it seems to have hyperlinks with Russia.

It’s nonetheless listed as an energetic firm with Corporations Home, the place all UK-based companies should register. Nevertheless, it has not filed any accounts since December 2022.

It lists eight official positions – although 4 of its officers have resigned.

Two of the apparently remaining officers are listed on the identical deal with in Moscow – as is a Russian billionaire, who’s described as a now resigned director.

Atlas Biomed’s registered workplace is close to London’s so-called Silicon Roundabout, one of many prime areas within the UK for tech corporations.

When the BBC visited, there was no signal of Atlas Biomed itself, however an organization registration agency based mostly within the constructing confirmed that it was a shopper of theirs, and legitimately used the deal with as its personal.

This agency, in an e mail, claimed that it couldn’t put the BBC in contact with Atlas Biomed “for safety functions”.

“We extremely counsel that you simply contact them straight,” it stated.

No-one from Atlas Biomed has responded to the BBC’s makes an attempt to contact it.

Cybersecurity professional Prof Alan Woodward stated the obvious hyperlinks to Russia have been “odd.”

“If individuals knew the provenance of this firm and the way it operates they won’t be fairly so able to belief them with their DNA,” he informed the BBC.

None of this explains the place Atlas Biomed’s database of buyer DNA has ended up – and the BBC has seen no proof it’s being misused.

However Prof Carissa Veliz – writer of Privateness is Energy – factors out that DNA is arguably probably the most precious private information you’ve gotten. It’s uniquely yours, you possibly can’t change it, and it reveals your – and by extension, your loved ones’s – organic strengths and weaknesses.

Biometric information is given particular safety below the UK’s model of GDPR, the information safety legislation.

“While you give your information to an organization you’re utterly at their mercy and you’ve got to have the ability to belief them,” Prof Veliz stated.

“We shouldn’t have to attend till one thing occurs.”

Further reporting by Graham Fraser