Co-founder Bastian Greshake Tzovaras confirmed that OpenSNP is a large open source repository for genetic data created by users and will be closed and deleted by the end of April.
exist Blog PostsOpenSNP’s Greshake Tzovaras attributed to a decision to close the website due to concerns about data privacy After 23andme’s financial crash and the rise of authoritarian governments around the world.
Founded in 2011 by Grenkake Tzovaras, along with Philipp Bayer and Helge Rausch, Opensnp became an open public repository for commercial genetic testing kits, including 23AndMe, uploading its test results and finding others with similar genetic mutations. The site had nearly 13,000 users when it closed the announcement, making it one of the largest public repositories of genetic data. Since its inception, OpenSNP has touted its contribution to academic and scientific research and has identified more than 7,500 genomes.
The message that OpenSNP is closed is 23 AandMe filed for bankruptcy protectionaggravates concerns about the company’s large number of customers sensitive to genetic data banks, will be sold to the highest bidders who may not comply with 23andMe’s privacy commitments. Attorneys in California and New York, etc.23AndMe customers have been warned to delete their data later this year before the court-approved sell-off.
Greshake Tzovaras also said a contributor to the closure of OpenSNP was the “rise from the far-right and other authoritarian governments”, citing the company. Delete public data from US government website Shortly after President Trump regained power.
“The risks/benefits of providing free and open access to a single genetic data in 2025 are very different than 14 years ago,” Greshake Tzovaras wrote. “Sunset Opensnp (and deleting the data stored in it) feels like the most responsible management behavior of this data today.”
“It’s always a balancing act”
When TechCrunch arrived, Greshake Tzovaras decided to turn off OpenSNP now, rather than shutting it down soon.
Greshake Tzovaras told the Germans, “Why is now’ now’ for me, it’s ultimately a fascist coup that took place in the United States.”
“Seeing people disappearing from the streets on the most suspicious excuses,” he said. Including U.S. citizensPeople arrested in immigration raids, The whereabouts of some people are still unknown.
Greshake Tzovaras said that since January, “the wholesale demolition of scientific institutions and science itself” (the beginning of the second Trump administration) is a factor in the closure of OpenSNP.
“I’m not worried about how to abuse genetic data anytime soon to make false claims on various topics, effectively bringing back a darker eugenic age,” he said.
Greshake Tzovaras said Opensnp is “always a balancing act” between its potential use and risk, and that the site’s existence has been “a constant idea of whether benefits can outweigh risks.”
In a historical example, he gave – when law enforcement used genetic data from GedMatch in 2018 Confirm the infamous serial killer – Greshake Tzovaras said that law enforcement has less risk of relevance or potential use than larger ancestral specific databases. (Greshake Tzovaras confirmed to TechCrunch that despite the openness and public nature of the data it stores, OpenSNP has never received law enforcement requests for any genetic or user data.)
Greshake Tzovaras said that “abuse of science is both very different from what we see today” in both existing qualitative and quantitative terms compared to the first Trump administration. ”
“Besides a bigger conversation about the impact of genetic data in the context of 23andme bankruptcy, we decided it was time to pull the plug,” Greshake Tzovaras told TechCrunch.
Greshake Tzovaras also told TechCrunch that in positive reflection, OpenSNP lasting for 14 years may be his “big achievement”. He said Opensnp is about $100 a month in the face of commercial startups that are committed to making people’s data profitable but ultimately fail. In this sense, Opensnp “feels like a proof of the power of open source/culture,” Greshake Tzovaras said.
Greshake Tzovaras said the website also contributed to research and publications. He said many college students also benefit from accessing real-world data hosted by OpenSNP.
“In this sense, I think our hopes for the democratized visit to genomics have at least partially succeeded,” Greshake Tzovaras said.
Update to modify the name of OpenSNP.
