Demand Progress

Sign the petition: Stop the sale of Ancestry to Blackstone!

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    Sign the petition: Stop the sale of Ancestry to Blackstone!

    Petition to Congress and the Federal Trade Commission:
    We demand that you protect privacy and important biometric data by intervening to stop the sale of Ancestry to the private equity firm Blackstone.

    Your DNA isn’t just data. It’s deeply personal, tied to your family, your health, and whether or not you can wiggle your ears. Now, Blackstone, a private equity firm with deep ties to Trump will own that deeply personal data when they buy the genealogy company Ancestry.1

    Millions of Americans have sent their DNA to Ancestry to learn more about themselves and their biological heritage. Now that data is about to become the property of a private equity firm determined to make huge profits from selling it to the highest bidder.

    2020 has already been bad enough. The last thing we need is a shady Trump-connected hedge fund owning the DNA data about ourselves and our families.

    Sign the petition: Tell Congress and federal regulators to block the sale of Ancestry to Blackstone!

    Private equity firms operate like pythons in reverse: first they devour companies wholesale, then they squeeze as much profit and revenue out of them, regardless of the consequences. But Blackstone is one of the largest private equity firms and one of the worst.

    Blackstone has deep ties to the Trump administration, and uses their corporate entities to empower Trump’s racist policies. After Blackstone took over the Motel 6, the hotel chain began handing over private customer data to ICE2, resulting in raids, family separations, detainment and deportations.

    Blackstone is also tied to a significant amount of Amazon jungle deforestation3, putting their relentless greed for profit above that planet-sustaining ecosystem.

    If that’s what Blackstone does to immigrants and the environment, just imagine what they could do with the DNA data about you and your family. Congress and federal regulators need to step in and stop the sale of Ancestry to Blackstone.

    Sign the petition: Tell Congress and federal regulators to block the sale of Ancestry to Blackstone!

     

    Sources:
    1. CBS News, “Private equity wants to own your DNA,” August 7, 2020.
    2. Reuters, “Motel 6 pays $12 million for sharing guest lists with U.S. immigration: Washington AG,” April 4, 2019.
    3. Intercept, “A Top Financier Of Trump And McConnell Is A Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation,” August 27, 2020.