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We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

arstechnica.com

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Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#41

Post by samtho »

ehhthing wrote: post #5
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #4

The thing to keep in mind is that that data can't be just be linked automatically to people, they need, as the article says to "compare these sequences to public genetic data without too much difficulty." It's just another version of a researching accidentally capturing you in a camera, but much harder to link you to the captured information.

We're a small step right now from the police getting access to genetic databases like 23andMe, so if anyone in your family tree has gotten a genetic test it may be possible for them to identify you based on ancestry.

> it may be possible for them to identify you based on ancestry

Small correction, but an important one:

The ancestry portion of the consumer autosomal DNA testing does not imply genetic relation to another human being. By contrast, the genetic relative matching these tests perform is very accurate because it lines up matching SNPs between your test and others’ tests to determine relation.

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#42

Post by acomjean »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #15
mensetmanusman wrote: post #6

Blood is sampled at birth in America, so we aren't too far away from being able to identify people who litter forever. Just takes one policy change... we are building the cells of a possible future prison.

Then why aren't they already doing that with CCTV and facial recognition?

They kinda are. Recently some lawyers got banned from Madison Square Garden because MSG corporate bans lawyers involved in cases against them from their venues. They found a lawyers image somewhere and fed it into the "banned from this establishment" facial recognition group .

Nobody really knew about this till the lawyer showed up to a show there with a girl scout troop going to a Christmas Show and was denied entrance. If they can do it to a lawyer..

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34104400

Of course the lawyers are suing, but its kinda over the top and the show was missed.

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#43

Post by acomjean »

ashirviskas wrote: post #26
sublinear wrote: post #14

I am no statistician, but wouldn't mass DNA collection reduce the reliability of DNA evidence?

Why could that be a case?

Because you leave DNA everywhere.

I remember a case study where they found the accused with DNA, only to find out, while the match was good, the match had been dead for a couple years and couldn't have been the perpetrator.

These "false positives" would make confidence in the system less.

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#45

Post by ignite »

Simulacra wrote: post #2

Wow, it had never occurred to me that the government might establish mass, passive DNA collection. Sort of reminds me of the East Germans and their little scent jars... Would the government have to tell us if they had collected our DNA through passive means in public?

Well, they are already collecting covid DNA from wastewater: https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-wastewater#3925188384-9...

And they are looking for one person, who has interesting characteristic, from a covid perspective:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/healthcare/2023/06/08/co...

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#46

Post by rolph »

searine wrote: post #10
mensetmanusman wrote: post #6

Blood is sampled at birth in America, so we aren't too far away from being able to identify people who litter forever. Just takes one policy change... we are building the cells of a possible future prison.

You could say the same about fingerprints, facial recognition, or behavior patterns. People get really paranoid about DNA for some reason but then willingly give out other kinds of PIID without caring.

PIID can be forged, and fraud dept. works with this.

DNA can be forged as well, the installation needs tradecraft.

DNA carries authority for now, but its easier to transfer a DNA smear than to lift and install a fingerprint.

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#47

Post by activiation »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #6

Blood is sampled at birth in America, so we aren't too far away from being able to identify people who litter forever. Just takes one policy change... we are building the cells of a possible future prison.

At a fall festival here in FL, the sheriff's office wanted to DNA test children to "help in the event of a kidnaping"

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#48

Post by pfdietz »

jonhohle wrote: post #19
pfdietz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm expecting the Republicans (if they haven't already) to insist that immigrants get their DNA put into databases. The argument would be that US citizens of long standing are already likely to have relatives in such databases (along with the genealogical information to exploit it) while criminal immigrants would be cloaked from such scrutiny, at least at first.

s/Republicans/politicians/; s/immigrants/everyone/ Based on the last 2 years of "show your papers" vaccine cards, I'm not sure why you'd pin this on Republicans.

Because the Republicans appear to enjoy abusing immigrants.

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#49

Post by sb52191 »

sublinear wrote: post #14

I am no statistician, but wouldn't mass DNA collection reduce the reliability of DNA evidence?

I think it depends on use cases and advancements in our understanding of time's effect on the DNA captured.

I.e. I could imagine that in the not too distant future, we know that DNA in air (exposed to sunlight) degrades at a certain percentage over time, and therefore could be used to determine if a person was near a given location recently. Sort of like carbon dating.

You could imagine law enforcement using this as a tool to find suspects: Drive around with a device that constantly captures air and checks it for the DNA of a suspect (which could have been found at the scene via other, more traditional methods) and then allows them to narrow down a persons location.

Re: We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies

#50

Post by acomjean »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #4

The thing to keep in mind is that that data can't be just be linked automatically to people, they need, as the article says to "compare these sequences to public genetic data without too much difficulty." It's just another version of a researching accidentally capturing you in a camera, but much harder to link you to the captured information.

Some states take DNA from anyone arrested. But they can search for family members (California approved this in 2010 I think). They caught the "Grim Sleeper" partially because his son got arrested for a Felony.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Sleeper

"Franklin was identified at least in part on familial DNA analysis.[41] Police had found no exact match between DNA found at the crime scenes and any of the profiles in California's DNA profile database, so they searched the database for stored profiles that demonstrated sufficient similarity to allow police to infer a familial relationship. They found similar DNA belonging to Franklin's son, Christopher, who had been convicted of a felony weapons charge in 2008. Christopher was too young to have committed the murders, but the familial DNA match led investigators to look at his father, Lonnie, as the likely perpetrator.[42]"

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