Customers
will still be able to connect with other non-law enforcement users
At-home DNA testing site FamilyTreeDNA — which was widely criticized for working with the FBI without telling its customers — will now offer users the option to prevent law enforcement from accessing their data.
In January, BuzzFeed News reported that FamilyTreeDNA let law enforcement create profiles on the site using DNA from unsolved cases. The agencies then used those profiles to look for possible matches in the company’s genetic database. Now, users will be able to opt out of matching with accounts created for this purpose, FamilyTreeDNA said in an email, as first reported by New Scientist. Law enforcement will have to go through a special process to use the database, and customers that opt out will still be able to match with other non-law enforcement users on the site.
In the past year, there has been an increasing number of crimes solved using DNA databases. Most notably, law enforcement solved the Golden State Killer case last April by comparing decades-old crime scene DNA to profiles on the public genealogy website GEDMatch. Investigators uploaded the 37-year-old DNA to a fake account on GEDMatch. While the Golden State Killer didn’t have a profile, law enforcement did find the DNA matches of relatives, which was enough to narrow down the suspects and make an arrest. Since then, familial DNA testing has grown even more powerful and could possibly cover the entire population with a relatively small database.
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