The ESG Scorecard: The Changing Landscape of Genetic Testing
December 5, 2024
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5 mins read
The direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing industry has transformed personal health and ancestry exploration, offering consumers remarkable insights from their DNA. Yet rising ESG concerns around data privacy, ethical use, and regulatory compliance are reshaping this landscape, pushing companies to prioritize consumer trust. Once a leader, 23andMe now faces steep challenges with data security, public confidence, and corporate stability. Recent breaches, including a leak impacting 6.9 million users, have led to lawsuits, a $30 million settlement, and boardroom upheaval, casting uncertainty on the company's future. Meanwhile, competitors like Ancestry and MyHeritage, though contending with similar issues, have remained comparatively stable. How does 23andMe compare to its competitors when it comes to ESG concerns? Read on to find out.
23andMe: From Market Leader to Data Breach Fallout
23andMe initially led the DTC genetic testing market but has faced a series of challenges, mainly around data privacy. A major data breach in 2023 compromised 6.9 million users’ information, resulting in a $30 million settlement and reputational damage. Board resignations followed, highlighting corporate governance issues. These events underscore the need for strong data security and governance in sustaining consumer trust.
Ancestry: Customer Loyalty Tested by Rising Controversies
Ancestry has also faced privacy-related challenges, especially since its acquisition by Blackstone. Lawsuits claim the company misused consumer data without consent, violating privacy laws. Public backlash, such as from a controversial advertisement, has further affected Ancestry’s image. Yet, its solid user base has helped it remain stable compared to some competitors.
MyHeritage: Navigating Privacy Compliance Across Borders
MyHeritage, while facing fewer controversies than its peers, still encounters significant privacy scrutiny. Investigations in Norway and Denmark have raised questions about its compliance with data laws. Although MyHeritage’s controversies are less severe, maintaining regulatory compliance remains essential for its international operations.
The future of the DTC genetic testing industry depends on how effectively companies manage ESG risks. Companies like 23andMe, Ancestry, and MyHeritage can better protect consumer trust and build a foundation for sustainable growth in this scrutinized sector by prioritizing data security, strong governance, and compliance.
Reach out to SESAMm
TextReveal’s web data analysis of over five million public and private companies is essential for keeping tabs on ESG investment risks. To learn more about how you can analyze web data or to request a demo, reach out to one of our representatives.
As 2025 kicks off, we stopped to take a look at the significant environmental, social, and governance (ESG) controversies of 2024, as we do every year. In this article, we dive into the three public companies with the most controversies for each pillar: environmental, social, and governance, analyzing the companies and the wider impact of the controversies themselves. Join us as we analyze these key moments that have not only influenced public opinion but also shaped the future of responsible business practices.
ESG Risks: Focus 2024
Starting with environmental risks, biodiversity and ecosystems, climate change, waste management, and atmospheric pollution emerged as the most scrutinized sub-risks in 2024. These issues were primarily tied to greenwashing, such as the Mercer Super case and energy companies' expansions at the expense of climate change.
Meanwhile, for social controversies, working conditions and fundamental human rights took center stage. Notably, some companies were linked to forced labor, while coffee supply chains were linked to child labor. Boycotts over the war on Gaza have also been a major highlight of 2024.
Environmental Controversies: Top 3 Public Companies
Shell
In 2024, Shell faced a host of environmental controversies, particularly through its Nigerian subsidiary, Nigeria Delta, which was implicated in serious water pollution due to oil spills. The company dealt with several other notable controversies, including a €15 million compensation related to the spills, a New York City lawsuit over climate change, and a landmark emissions ruling from a Dutch court. Additionally, the company faced condemnation from U.S. lawmakers for alleged greenwashing practices, a carbon credit scandal, and a water contamination lawsuit resolved with a $230 million settlement.
ExxonMobil
2024 was a challenging year for ExxonMobil. First, its Hammerhead project was hit by an FDA-required Environmental Impact Assessment to evaluate the potential ecological risks. Then, conflicts with Venezuela arose over environmental concerns, followed by several U.S. lawsuits. California, Kansas, and Puerto Rico all sued the company for issues ranging from global plastic pollution and greenwashing to trade law violations. Additionally, ExxonMobil was targeted in a climate lawsuit and faced ongoing fallout from the 1989 oil spill. Protests from groups like CalPERS and student activists highlighted dissatisfaction with ExxonMobil’s environmental practices, emphasizing the company's broad regulatory and public relations challenges.
TotalEnergies
Coming in at number three, TotalEnergies dealt with several environmental controversies, notbably protests related to its East African crude oil pipeline project in Tanzania and Uganda. The company has also been accused of greenwashing and misleading sustainability claims while struggling with oil leaks at its Donges refinery and Egina field. On top of these environmental controversies, TotalEngeries faced key governance and social controversies, including a $48 million fine by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for attempting to manipulate the European gasoline market in March 2018. There are also ongoing investigations into an attack in Mozambique.
Social Controversies: Top 3 Public Companies
Boeing
In 2024, Boeing faced significant challenges due to safety concerns and production controversies, which have fueled employee unrest and public skepticism. Recent incidents, including a missing door plug attachment on a Boeing 737 Max and investigations into quality control lapses at Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems, have eroded trust among small businesses reliant on the manufacturer. Whistleblower testimonies and increasing scrutiny from Congress and the FAA highlight systemic safety failures. These developments suggest a difficult path ahead for Boeing as it works to regain credibility amid ongoing struggles.
Pfizer
In 2024, Pfizer faced scrutiny after EU documents revealed over 4.9 million adverse events and 3,280 deaths linked to its COVID-19 vaccine, especially among women and individuals aged 31-50. Critics allege Pfizer continued distribution despite knowing the risks, questioning the EMA's approval. Additionally, DNA contaminants, including carcinogenic SV40 sequences, have been reported in the vaccines. A whistleblower disclosed that Pfizer employees were offered a "separate" COVID vaccine, raising concerns about access inequality. Kansas has filed a lawsuit accusing Pfizer of misleading the public about vaccine safety; meanwhile, the company faces fines in the UK for excessive pricing of an anti-epileptic drug.
Meta
In 2024, Meta faced intense scrutiny and legal challenges due to multiple controversies, including a significant data breach, allegations of failing to protect children, and privacy concerns. The company settled a $1.4 billion lawsuit related to facial recognition practices and was fined $220 million by Nigeria for violating data laws. Additional lawsuits from school districts and the Consumer Protection Association highlighted issues related to social media addiction and mental health impacts on teenagers.
Governance Controversies: Top 3 Public Companies
Alphabet
2024 was a legally challenging year for Alphabet, facing numerous antitrust issues globally. For instance, Allegro sued Alphabet for $568 million over anti-competitive practices, and the U.S. Justice Department accused Google of monopolies in the search engine and Android app markets. It has also faced an antitrust ruling, which it plans to appeal. In Europe, Google was scrutinized under the Digital Markets Act and fined 71 million euros in Turkey for anti-competitive behavior. Additionally, France imposed a $271 million fine on Google for using news content without publisher consent, and India began investigating Google's gaming app policies. These incidents highlight Alphabet’s ongoing regulatory battles across multiple continents.
In conclusion, the controversies surrounding environmental, social, and governance issues in 2024 have underscored the urgent need for accountability and transparency within corporations. As these companies grapple with significant backlash and legal challenges, it is clear that stakeholder expectations are evolving. The demand for responsible practices is louder than ever, and the consequences of neglecting these issues can be severe, impacting not just public perception but also financial stability and sustainability.
SESAMm’s AI Technology Reveals ESG Insights
Discover unparalleled insights into ESG controversies, risks, and opportunities across industries. Learn more about how SESAMm can help you analyze millions of private and public companies using AI-powered text analysis tools.
The rapid growth of social media companies has created significant ESG challenges, particularly in the areas of data privacy, content moderation, and corporate governance.
Meta and ByteDance, in particular, have been hit with lawsuits and fines related to data breaches, privacy violations, harmful content affecting minors, labor practices, and antitrust, with regulatory bodies across the US, EU, and Asia increasing scrutiny of their data collection practices.
Let’s dive into some of the key ESG challenges facing the social networking industry.
Meta Platforms Inc.: Privacy Breaches and Regulatory Scrutiny
Meta, the mother company of some of the most used social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has faced numerous ESG challenges over the years, including privacy breaches, data misuse, and content moderation issues. 2025 is off to a rocky start, with the company facing a new lawsuit over personal data usage for targeted ads. In 2024, Meta was fined €251 million for a 2018 data breach and faced fines in South Korea and Nigeria for unlawful data collection and antitrust trials regarding Instagram and WhatsApp. In 2023, it addressed issues related to minors and employee treatment. Previous years included fines over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and minors' privacy violations, highlighting ongoing governance and privacy risks amidst regulatory scrutiny.
ByteDance Ltd (TikTok): National Security Risks and Content Concerns
In recent years, TikTok has faced significant ESG risks as U.S. politicians labeled it a national security threat, leading to data privacy concerns and investigations in the EU. By 2022, it incurred major fines, including a £27 million penalty in the UK for data breaches. In 2023, child safety and harmful content lawsuits increased, prompting government bans on official devices in the U.S., UK, and EU. In 2024, TikTok lost its appeal against a U.S. ban, while countries like Canada and Albania imposed restrictions. A 2025 Supreme Court ruling heightened the risk of a complete ban, highlighting ongoing legal challenges.
Since Elon Musk's acquisition of X (formerly Twitter), the platform has faced major controversies over hate speech and misinformation. Legal issues from the $44 billion buyout and a $150 million settlement for security breaches surfaced in 2022, along with fines in Russia and India. In 2023, X received backlash for hosting anti-Semitic content, leading to advertiser losses and lawsuits. The EU initiated investigations into disinformation, and by 2024, X faced fines in Brazil and Australia, GDPR complaints, and class action lawsuits related to age discrimination and mass layoffs, raising concerns about its online impact.
Kakao has faced moderate ESG risks, notably privacy issues and market behavior controversies. In 2024, the company was fined $11.1 million due to a KakaoTalk data breach. Additionally, in 2023, Kakao faced investigations over market manipulation linked to its SM Entertainment acquisition and experienced security vulnerabilities enabling fraudulent activities. Despite these concerns, Kakao's service outages and monopolistic practice allegations have had less severe impacts compared to industry peers.
REDnote (Xiaohongshu) has fewer ESG issues compared to its peers, facing challenges primarily related to censorship, privacy, and regulatory compliance. In 2025, Texas banned its use on government devices due to security concerns. Earlier, REDnote encountered legal challenges over AI-generated art copyrights (2023), a Taiwan-imposed national security ban (2022), layoffs due to restructuring (2022), and fines by Chinese regulators for inappropriate content involving minors (2021).
The social networking industry continues to grapple with significant ESG challenges related to data privacy, harmful content, and corporate governance. Major companies such as Meta, ByteDance, X Corp, KakaoTalk, and REDnote face ongoing regulatory scrutiny, fines, and lawsuits, highlighting persistent ethical concerns. While these issues pressure platforms to improve transparency and governance practices, they also underscore the industry's substantial risks and responsibilities to users and stakeholders.
Reach out to SESAMm
TextReveal’s web data analysis of over five million public and private companies is essential for keeping tabs on ESG investment risks. To learn more about how you can analyze web data or to request a demo, reach out to one of our representatives.
Monitoring controversies is key in the analysis of ESG company performance. Information on social climate, company reputation, incidents, and accidents is now crucial to enable banks, financial institutions, and insurers primarily to monitor the risk in their client companies' portfolios (credit risk, claims risk, reputation risk, etc.).
Since the official announcement of their partnership on controversy-detection and scoring of listed companies in December 2021, EthiFinance, the European specialist in risk analysis and financial and ESG rating, has partnered with SESAMm, an innovative company specializing in alternative data and artificial intelligence for investment, to launch EthiMonitor powered by SESAMm.
With EthiMonitor, these two industry-leading companies have together developed a co-branded ESG controversy analysis solution for any SME universe.
EthiMonitor will access SESAMm’s ever-growing data lake through its proprietary NLP technology to provide timely ESG information. The EthiMonitor product categorizes information and highlights a company’s risk and compliance with international standards (e.g., UNGC Principles, OECD Guidelines, etc.) based on EthiFinance’s controversy assessment methodologies.
The solution provides tailored coverage to clients who need to monitor controversies in SME universes (banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, asset managers, local governments, corporations, ESG associations, or regulatory bodies).
"With EthiMonitor, we bring to the market a rigorous, proprietary, and unique SME controversy analysis solution that secures risk monitoring and decision-making for all types of counterparties and stakeholders, including but not limited to financial institutions, insurers, and investors. EthiMonitor strengthens EthiFinance's ability to inform decisions that help build a sustainable economy," said Xavier Leroy, Head of Advisory Services at EthiFinance.”
“Working with EthiFinance has been a great experience as we have been able to marry our cutting-edge technology to their deep expertise in ESG,” said Sylvain Forté, CEO of SESAMm “The synergy attained by the two companies is evident in how much value EthiMonitor, powered by SESAMm offers to our mutual clients.”
Who to contact about the new EthiMonitor powered by SESAMm
SESAMm is an innovative company specializing in alternative data and artificial intelligence for investment. Its team builds analytics and indicators, such as Sentiment Analytics, ESG Indicators, and investment signals, by analyzing billions of web articles and messages using natural language processing and machine learning. With its NLP platform TextReveal®, SESAMm addresses the entire value chain of alpha research. With six offices, including Paris, New York, London, and Tokyo, SESAMm works with major hedge funds, banks, private equity firms, and corporate and asset management clients worldwide for fundamental or quantitative investment use cases, market analysis, and competitive insights.
About EthiFinance
EthiFinance is an independent European financial and non-financial consulting, research, and rating services group. EthiFinance is recognised for its methodological rigour and its original approach to double materiality, and promotes informed decision-making. EthiFinance creates trust between investors, stakeholders, and companies to support them in their societal and environmental transformations.
"EtthiFinance, a guarantee of trust for a sustainable economy."
Locations: Paris, Lyon, Madrid, and Granada - More than 100 employees - More than 300 clients worldwide
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