Fewer than 10 cases apparently
One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
131–140 of 331 posts
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#132All of the at-home DNA testing companies include this in their license agreements, including the ability to use your DNA in case any of your relatives might be accused of a crime. This is one case in which you definitely want to read the license before you sign up... then throw that test tube in the trash!
I know I'm not a serial rapist &/or murderer. I hope my family members are not. The question is: what do I value more? A society without serial rapist killers or my family? I guess I prefer a society without that sort of nonsense, so even if my DNA is used to ensnare a relative, and they were doing horrible stuff, I'd be heartbroken that a family member had gone so astray but grateful they were unable to hurt anybody…
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Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#133Few people taking theses tests understand or care about the privacy-destroying effect of what they're doing to themselves and their families. For example, this is from the AncestryDNA (different company) terms of service: By submitting User Provided Content to AncestryDNA, you grant AncestryDNA and the Ancestry Group Companies a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license to host, transfer…
>what they're doing to themselves and their families. This only encourages me. My DNA is on record in various places, and if any relative of mine commits a crime I want the honor of being the person who fucked them and sent them to prison. I would tout the event as an esteemed accomplishment. Everyone seems to be worried about a sci-fi movie where clones are made from cheek swabs or corporations use DNA to deny certa…
As a certain Chinese person recently learned, you can start a trip in Country A, get arrested on a stopover in Country B on your way to Country C, accused of breaking the laws of Country D because you (allegedly) did business in Country E through a subsidiary in Country F.
I’m worried about getting deported to Saudi Arabia (never been) because I drank alcohol in my home country, but happen to stopover in a country that yields to large cash payments to enforce its extra-territorial laws.
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
>what they're doing to themselves and their families. This only encourages me. My DNA is on record in various places, and if any relative of mine commits a crime I want the honor of being the person who fucked them and sent them to prison. I would tout the event as an esteemed accomplishment. Everyone seems to be worried about a sci-fi movie where clones are made from cheek swabs or corporations use DNA to deny certa…
I applaud your thinking. But in the real world, things can get ugly very very quickly as the original commenter said. Even worse, imagine your DNA results score being used as part of employment qualification checks! When the greed of $$ is involved, ethics take a backseat in almost all corporate decision making, and good willed but naive persons get trampled.
In the US, it is already illegal for genetic information to be used as a qualification for employment.
(a) Discrimination Based on Genetic Information.--It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer--
(1) to fail or refuse to hire, or to discharge, any employee, or otherwise to discriminate against any employee with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment of the employee, because of genetic information with respect to the employee; or
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify the employees of the employer in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive any employee of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect the status of the employee as an employee, because of genetic information with respect to the employee.
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#135All of the at-home DNA testing companies include this in their license agreements, including the ability to use your DNA in case any of your relatives might be accused of a crime. This is one case in which you definitely want to read the license before you sign up... then throw that test tube in the trash!
Speaking of "throw that test tube in the trash", I'll share my anecdote: One of the DNA testing companies was offering a free test for folks who suffer from things like autoimmune disorders (which I do). I signed up, got the kit, filled out the survey which asks a bunch of specific questions about which particular medical condition you have, etc. I set the box aside, planning to take it to work and drop it off in out…
This is the kind of thing that makes people not believe in the OP's story, because this is absolutely ridiculous.
It's called cookie and fragment tracking across the Internet. That's what happened to you. You sold yourself out by browsing the web without sufficient content blockers.
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#136I bet if there was an option to voluntarily enable this, many people would say yes! eg. "Do you want us to use your data to help catch criminals / rescue those wrongly accused?"
Same way as asking "Do you want to be an organ donor?".
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#137Whole genome sequencing is now available for well under $1000 and prices continue to drop.
https://us.dantelabs.com/blogs/news/whole-genome-sequencing-...
I understand that forensic DNA comparisons are currently simpler and more error-prone, but it seems like whole-genome comparison is already cheap enough that it could be used for comparing suspect DNA with crime scene DNA in important cases. At some point I expect it to become the new standard.
The "what about flawed DNA matches?" arguments against using this technology in law enforcement raise valid concerns, but I think that these specific objections may be obsolete in a few more years.
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#138If this bothers you, consider fighting back. Submit as many DNA samples to as many firms as you can find. Send each sample from a different [consenting] donor, and ask that they do the same and include you among their donors. This action at scale dirties the data sets of all the companies involved.
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t believe that test does the same level of sequencing that 23andMe does. It basically tests for a few dozen genetic diseases. Diseases where if it’s caught early, the child has a chance at curtailing the negative consequences of the disease (they don’t test for diseases with no treatments).
Indeed it doesn't do the same level of sequencing. But the specimen is not being thrown away after the test, but kept in an archive. In some states like California you can revoke consent at least. See the list of states with how long they store the specimens here: https://www.cchfreedom.org/files/files/Newborn%20Retention%2... Governments might use this archive to sequence the DNAs down the road and then use it simil…
Fair point about keeping the samples!
Re: One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and their families That's how a local cold murder case was solved last year. DNA from a 25-year-old crime scene was run against the samples in one of these genealogy databases, and they found a familial match. Police set up a sting to covertly collect DNA from that person's immediate family. They got their DNA match with a brother's water bottle police took from a trash can after he worked a DJ gig at a school. htt…
Total surveillance or global DNA law enforcement database would solve many murders and prevent wrongful convictions. However, it would also give many opportunities for framing convenient suspects and "encouraging" confessions. I am sure your case was above board but, being born in a totalitarian state, I do not trust law enforcement too much and prefer to err on the side of not solving some crimes. My 2c.
How would it let you frame convenient suspects? Surely you would need to place that suspects DNA at the scene, in which case you already have it...? Where does the database come into this?