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Family Tree DNA, one of the largest private genetic testing companies whose home-testing kits enable people to trace their ancestry and locate relatives, is working with the FBI and allowing agents to search its vast genealogy database in an effort to solve violent crime cases, BuzzFeed News has learned.
Federal and local law enforcement have used public genealogy databases for more than two years to solve cold cases, including the landmark capture of the suspected Golden State Killer, but the cooperation with Family Tree DNA and the FBI marks the first time a private firm has agreed to voluntarily allow law enforcement access to its database.
While the FBI does not have the ability to freely browse genetic profiles in the library, the move is sure to raise privacy concerns about law enforcement gaining the ability to look for DNA matches, or more likely, relatives linked by uploaded user data.
originally posted by: Rewey
And thanks to Google home and Alexa, etc, they have access to all audible conversations from those homes silly enough to have one.
originally posted by: burdman30ott6
originally posted by: toms54
No one 25 years ago could have foreseen the loss of privacy that exists today.
I disagree... Orwell foresaw it 70 years ago.
originally posted by: burdman30ott6
originally posted by: Rewey
And thanks to Google home and Alexa, etc, they have access to all audible conversations from those homes silly enough to have one.
...and smartphones, and smart TVs, and Facebook, and frequent shopper club cards, and major credit and debit cards, and GPS systems, and home security systems...
We did it to ourselves and we're dumbasses for it.
originally posted by: burdman30ott6
originally posted by: toms54
No one 25 years ago could have foreseen the loss of privacy that exists today.
I disagree... Orwell foresaw it 70 years ago.
originally posted by: Justoneman
BUZZFEED again?
Maybe we need to sit back and think about other sources for a bit than Buzzfeed. CNN sounds more logical and they suck.
Thank you for Gizmodo.... cant be worse.
originally posted by: schuyler
And yet----they caught the Golden State killer. Perhaps the relative who submitted his DNA feels his "rights were violated!" but maybe not. I just found an unknown brother using 23andme, or rather, he found me. He knew his father he grew up with was probably not his biological father, so he and his daughter both submitted their sample and what do you know? I came up a 25% match for him and 17% for his daughter. Seems my father was sowing his oats when I was in high school. And his Mom worked at the same restaurant my father did.
Now I suppose you could say our father's "rights were violated." After all, he did not consent to any sort of DNA test and provided no sample, but he got caught out anyway. If they'd caught him 50 years ago, he'd be liable for child support. And he should have been. Anyone who has been accused of child support falsely knows the value of a test that can prove innocence as easily as guilt. I think that is a good thing.
Remember that it doesn't really matter whether you personally have a DNA test done. My father died years before the tests were available. You may be able to avoid a test, but you can't control all your relatives, and sometimes that's all you need.
In a new study, 74 out of 108 crime laboratories implicated an innocent person in a hypothetical bank robbery