Fined by the FTC. Deceives their customers. Not to be Trusted.
In a complaint first announced in June 2023, the FTC said 1Health.io, formerly known as Vitagene, deceived consumers about its privacy and security practices. The FTC said the company failed to keep its promises to only share consumers’ sensitive data in limited circumstances, to destroy customers’ DNA samples shortly after they had been analyzed, to not store DNA results with a consumer’s name or other identifying information, and to remove such data from its servers upon consumers’ request. Despite promising “rock-solid security,” Vitagene put users’ sensitive data at risk by storing unencrypted health, genetic, and other personal information in publicly accessible data buckets, according to the complaint. The FTC also charged that the company in 2020 changed its privacy policy by retroactively expanding the types of third parties with which it could share consumers’ data without notifying affected consumers or obtaining their consent.
"Companies that try to change the rules of the game by re-writing their privacy policy are on notice," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.