Can the new owner of GEDmatch ,a genealogy database preserve its original purpose while allowing a seamless service to law enforcement?
Home DNA testing has made it easy and affordable for millions of people to learn about their ancestry. Now, police are using this genetic information to identify suspects in unsolved crimes.
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Despite privacy concerns over police use of DNA uploaded to ancestry websites, many people are just excited that their genetic material could get a killer off the streets.
Data and privacy issues are tangled up in the DNA reports consumers get from big genetic testing companies – and the third-party sites they turn to in order to glean more from their raw DNA.
The arrest of former cop Joseph DeAngelo in the Golden State Killer case raises questions about the common occupations of killers and psychopaths. Canada’s Russell Williams was a former military officer.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who authorities suspect is the so-called Golden State Killer responsible for at least a dozen murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and ‘80s, during his arraignment on April 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
A public genealogy data base was used to track down the so-called “Golden State Killer,” raising concerns about the privacy of using public sites to fill out our family trees.