With genetic testing company 23andMe filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and courting bidders, the DNA data of millions of users is up for sale.

A Silicon Valley stalwart since 2006, 23andMe has steadily amassed a database of people’s fundamental genetic information under the promise of helping them understand their disposition to diseases and potentially connecting with relatives.

But the company’s bankruptcy filing Sunday means information is set to be sold, causing massive worry among privacy experts and advocates.

“Folks have absolutely no say in where their data is going to go,” said Tazin Kahn, CEO of the nonprofit Cyber Collective, which advocates for privacy rights and cybersecurity for marginalized people.

“How can we be so sure that the downstream impact of whoever purchases this data will not be catastrophic?” she said.

A spokesperson for 23andMe said in an emailed statement that there will be no change to how the company stores customers’ data and that it plans to follow all relevant U.S. laws.

But Andrew Crawford, an attorney at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, said genetic data lawfully acquired and held by a tech company has almost no federal regulation to begin with.

Not only does the United States not have a meaningful general digital privacy law, he said, but Americans’ medical data faces less legal scrutiny if it’s held by a tech company rather than by a medical professional.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which regulates some ways in which health data can be shared and stored in the United States, largely applies only “when that data is held by your doctor, your insurance company, folks kind of associated with the provision of health care,” Crawford said.

“HIPAA protections don’t typically attach to entities that have IOT [internet of things] devices like fitness trackers and in many cases the genetic testing companies like 23andMe,” he said.

There is precedent for 23andMe’s losing control of users’ data.

In 2023, a hacker gained access to the data of what the company later admitted were around 6.9 million people, almost half of its user base at the time.

Article credited from NBC News

Restaurant chain Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy in Texas on Monday, seeking to address its $376 million debt by selling all of its company-owned restaurants to a franchise group backed by the company’s founders.

Hooters, like other casual dining restaurants, has struggled in recent years due to inflation, the high costs of labor and food, and declining spending by cash-strapped American consumers. The company currently directly owns and operates 151 locations, with another 154 restaurants operated by franchisees, primarily in the United States.

The privately-owned company, which shares a private equity owner with recently-bankrupt TGI Fridays, intends to sell all corporate-owned locations to a buyer group comprised of two existing Hooters franchisees, who operate 30 high-performing Hooters locations in the U.S., mainly in Florida and Illinois.

Hooters did not disclose the purchase price of the transaction, which must be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge before it becomes final.

Founded in 1983, Hooters became famous for its chicken wings and its servers’ uniform of orange shorts and low-cut tank tops.

The buyer group is backed by some of Hooters’ original founders, and it pledged to take Hooters “back to its roots.”

“With over 30 years of hands-on experience across the Hooters ecosystem, we have a profound understanding of our customers and what it takes to not only meet, but consistently exceed their expectations,” said Neil Kiefer, a member of the buyer group and the current CEO of the original Hooters’ location in Clearwater, Florida.

Hooters said it expects to complete the deal and emerge from bankruptcy in three to four months. The company has lined up about $35 million in financing from its existing lender group to complete the bankruptcy transaction.

Casual dining restaurants have been hammered by rising costs in 2024, with well-known chains like TGI Fridays, Red Lobster, Bucca di Beppo, and Rubio’s Coastal Grill all filing for bankruptcy last year.

Restaurant prices have risen about 30% in the last 5 years, outpacing consumer prices overall, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Article credited from Reuters.com

Struggling fabric and crafts seller Joann plans to close about 500 of its stores across the U.S. — or more than half of its current nationwide footprint.

The move, announced Wednesday, arrives amid a tumultuous time for Joann. Last month, the Hudson, Ohio-based retailer f iled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time within a year, with the company pointing to issues like sluggish consumer demand and inventory shortages.

Joann previously sought Chapter 11 in March 2024 and later emerged as a private company. But after operational challenges continued to pile up, Joann filed for bankruptcy again in January. It’s now looking to sell the business — and maintained in a filing Wednesday that closing “underperforming” locations is necessary to complete that process.

“This was a very difficult decision to make, given the major impact we know it will have on our Team Members, our customers and all of the communities we serve,” the company said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “(But) right-sizing our store footprint is a critical part of our efforts to ensure the best path forward.”

Joann currently operates around 800 stores across 49 states. The initial list of the roughly 500 locations it’s looking to close can be found on the company’s restructuring website — spanning states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and more.

When exactly those closures will take place and how many employees will be impacted has yet to be seen. Joann’s Wednesday motion seeks court permission to begin the process.

Joann’s roots date back to 1943, with a single storefront in Cleveland, Ohio. And the retailer later grew into a national chain. Formerly known as Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores, the company rebranded itself with the shortened “Joann” name for its 75th anniversary.

Both of Joann’s bankruptcy filings seen over the last year arrived amid some slowdowns in discretionary spending — notably with consumers taking a step back from at-home crafts, at least relative to the early COVID-19 pandemic boom. Joann has also faced rising competition in the crafts space from rivals like Hobby Lobby, as well as from larger retailers, like Target, who now offer ample art supplies and kits.

And, while Joann turned to implementing a new business plan after emerging from bankruptcy last spring, “unanticipated inventory challenges post-emergence, coupled with the prolonged impact of an excessively sluggish retail economy, put (Joann) back into an untenable debt position,” interim CEO Michael Prendergast noted in a sworn court declaration filed when Joann initiated its latest Chapter 11 proceedings on Jan. 15.

Prendergast explained that inventory shortages had significant ripple effects on Joann’s core business, particularly when “in-stock levels eventually dropped by upwards of 10%" and led to a “new phase of operational distress.”

Citing these and other macroeconomic challenges seen in the retail space over recent years, Joann has maintained that a sale of the business is the best path forward. The company says it has a proposed “stalking horse” bid agreement with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners.

Article credited online at Reuters.com