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Ancestry urges Vermont to make attorney general sole enforcer of genetic-privacy bill
Summary
Ancestry testified in support of House Bill 639, which would require express consents and let consumers delete genetic data; the company and the state AG’s office clashed over whether enforcement should be limited to the attorney general or include private lawsuits.
Ancestry’s government-affairs head, Richie Engelhart, told the House Commerce and Economic Development committee on Feb. 4 that House Bill 639 would codify long-standing privacy practices for direct-to-consumer genetic testing and urged the committee to designate the state attorney general as the sole enforcement authority rather than creating a private right of action. "We would like to offer 1 amendment to the bill today, making it clear that the attorney general and the state's attorney have the sole authority to enforce H.639," Engelhart said.
The bill, Engelhart said, requires separate, express consent for collection, processing, use or sharing of genetic data, and lets consumers delete their genetic data and request destruction of any biological samples they had stored. He told lawmakers the…
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