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Comment by hasoleju | Hacker News Reader

> think the stored data they have is their only advantage, but they don't seem to know how to leverage it.

I really wonder what happens to that data if they get acquired or shut down. The possible new owner of the data might have a completely different business case in mind. This scenario is something you usually don't consider when you give your data to a company that you trust at the moment.

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No need to wonder, imagine the worst case scenario and assign it a non zero probability.

This scenario is something you usually don't consider when you give your data to a company that you trust at the moment.

Why would you not consider it?

Like selling it to insurance companies who can use the data to deny coverage.

This is illegal, at least in the US.

Illegal for health insurance companies. But not so for life insurance, or disability insurance or long-term care.

It's illegal in some US states like California. The California Genetic Information Privacy Act prohibits these companies from disclosing a consumer’s genetic data to any entity that is responsible for administering or making decisions regarding health insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance.

If they wanted to use that information for underwriting they'd just make getting a genetic test a prereq before underwriting the policy.

And if they wanted easy cash they'd "just" make you pay $500 as a signup fee.

Which is to say: No they wouldn't just do that, it would cut their business too much despite being a way to make more money per client.

But getting it from a company that already has it avoids that downside.

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