Initially released in 2008, the DNA kit, offers its customers access to genetic information that, according to its creator, is the beginning of a “personal genetics revolution that will transform not only how we look after ourselves, but what we mean by personal data.” Creator and CEO of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki described the kit as a “digital manifestation of you”. Users submit a spit sample and return it to the 23andMe lab based in California. Initially, 23andMe was marketed as a tool which estimates your predisposition for more than 90 health conditions. In 2013, the price of the kit was reduced from $299 to $99 due to a large funding injection, by investors Sergey Brin (Google co-founder), Yuri Milner (a Russian venture capitalise), Anne Wojcicki, (23andMe CEO), and Google Ventures. This saw its client base boosted to its client base to 500,000.

Previously, access to personal genetic information was both very expensive and difficult to obtain by everyday consumers without specialist access. Kits like this offer accessible and easily obtainable information to consumers who want to have more access to their own personal information, offering the opportunity to know early if diseases such as breast cancer or Alzheimer’s were likely to occur later on in life. 23andMe home DNA kits were awarded Time’s 2008 Invention of the Year.

The product has come under scrutiny over concerns of accuracy with the results and over questions regarding user privacy and access to data. Since receiving a warning from the Food and Drug Administration, 23andMe now only offers ancestry related genetic reports and interpreted raw genetic data. They are no longer offering health-related reports. This kit was purchased at the same time as concerns of the NHS and the selling of access to patient information to the insurance industry under the care data scheme. In the UK.