*By Conor White*
In the wake of a data breach at MyHeritage that affected more than 90 million users, other DNA-testing services are trying to assure customers their personal information is secure.
"Ultimately, the amount of care that companies go to is really important," explained David Nicholson, co-founder and managing director of Living DNA, which provides customers information on where their ancestors come from. "But you should always look at the company you're going to test your DNA with, or store your DNA with, and decide where you're going to put that information."
The recent furor over security comes after MyHeritage disclosed last week it learned that the email addresses and encrypted passwords of 92.3 million users had been leaked to a private server last October. In an interview Monday on Cheddar, Nicholson said accessing an individual's actual DNA would be much more difficult.
"Any of these firms don't actually store your DNA data, which you could use to identify you publicly on a website. That's all kept securely on encrypted servers way behind the scenes."
While Living DNA is doing its best to protect user data from malicious actors, Nicholson also reassured customers that their data would never be willingly given to anyone looking to profit off of it.
"We will absolutely never sell data, never pass it on," he said. "We are custodians of your data, and therefore it's kept secure, safe, and encrypted for you, never to be sold."
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-safe-is-your-information-with-a-dna-testing-service).
Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, joins Cheddar News to discuss how chatbots can help prevent eating disorders and the research that uncovered these findings.
Shoulder injuries are one of the most common orthopedic injuries – and they're also one of the most commonly ignored. But chimpanzees, with whom we share nearly 99% of our DNA, don’t encounter the same issues we do. So why are human shoulders such a design disaster? Well, we can trace the answer back to a very particular moment in our evolution.
As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the country. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments at the end of this week on whether or not the Biden administration can force private companies to vaccinate or test millions of their employees. In addition, the National Nurses United has spearheaded legal action to protect nurses and health care workers, patients, and the public while on the job. President of the National Nurses Union, Zenei Cortez, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Digital medical care provider Pear Therapeutics rang the closing bell on the Nasdaq Friday and President and CEO Dr. Corey McCann, joined Cheddar to talk about how the company plans to grow the business of software-based therapeutics and how the first FDA authorized prescription digital therapeutics company will go about treating illnesses like insomnia and addiction. "These really are pieces of software. In many cases, they're apps and in the cases of our addiction products, these are based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT," he said. "These products change the patient's brain circuitry to help them be abstinent, to help them stay in treatment, and that's exactly what we see in randomized clinical trials and that's what we see in the real world." He also addressed the ongoing mental health crises brought on by the pandemic. **copy updated to remove IPO information as Pear Therapeutics went public in December**
Jake Carbone, senior data analyst at InfluenceMap joins Cheddar News to talk about a new report by The Guardian and InfluenceMap that reveals how companies are creating fossil fuel ads designed to look like Google search results.
Satellite launch service Virgin Orbit has gone public on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisitions with a valuation of about $3.2 billion. CEO Dan Hart joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" from in front of his LauncherOne rocket in New York City's Times Square to talk about what's next after the IPO, an upcoming "Above the Clouds" mission to deliver commercial and national security payloads, and the benefits of their rockets being launched from commercial 747 aircraft. "We can launch anywhere in the world," he said. "There are almost 80 space agencies across the world, for instance, and about 10 of them have space launch. We can give them a space flight capability overnight by taking a runway and turning it into a spaceport."
The year 2021 saw numerous natural disasters around the world, including extreme heat and wildfires, rare deep freezes, and historic flooding. This year's United Nations COP26 conference was key for getting world leaders on board with emissions reductions and other climate-focused policies as the UN Secretary-General said the agency's report on global warming is a 'code red for humanity.' In the U.S., President Joe Biden has focused most of his domestic agenda on slashing emissions and building climate-focused infrastructure. Guests from The Economist, UNC-Chapel Hill, Global Rescue, and more join Cheddar Climate's year-end special to discuss how the climate changed in 2021, and what to expect in 2022.
Digital mental health company Little Otter recently announced it closed a $22 million Series A round. Little Otter was founded in 2020 by a mother-daughter team, which based the company on the idea that a child's mental health can only be addressed by treating the whole family through technology available to everyone. Little Otter CEO and co-founder Rebecca Egger and her mother, Little Otter Chief Medical and Scientific Officer and co-founder Dr. Helen Egger joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Among all the other events of the last few years, you may have missed this one: Spermageddon. This is the fun name for the idea that sperm counts among mainly ‘Western’ men are in freefall. The Spermageddon hype began with the publication of a 2017 study showing a nearly 60% drop in overall sperm counts in men living in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
But four years later, it seems that Spermageddon has been overblown. By a lot. And all that hype has obscured the real issue behind declining male fertility.
Covid-19 has changed the way we view wellness. Jillian Hughes, communications director of Mental Health America, joins Cheddar News to discuss breaking the stigma around mental health. Justin Davis, CEO and co-founder of Spectrum Labs, weighs in on how social media impacts our wellbeing. Lastly, Precision Nutrition CEO Timothy Jones advices us on what trends to watch in 2022.
