United States of America: Implementation of California Genetic Information Privacy Act

The Genetic Information Privacy Act (SB 41) is implemented on 1 January 2022. The act requires companies that provide direct-to-consumer genetic testing to inform consumers about the company’s policies and procedures regarding the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of genetic data and to obtain the consumer’s express consent for the use of their genetic data. The law gives consumers the right to revoke their consent in which case companies have to destroy the consumer’s biological sample within 30 days. Furthermore, the companies will have to comply with the laws for genetic data disclosure to law enforcement without the consumer’s consent and to implement and maintain security procedures to protect consumers’ genetic data.