A DNA Site Helped Authorities Crack the Golden State Killer Case. Here ’s What You Should Know About Your Genetic Data Privacy

Police this week arrested a man suspected to be the notorious Golden State Killer with the help of a resource they could only have dreamed of in the 1970s, when a gruesome spree of rapes and murders began terrorizing California: databases filled with individuals’ genetic data. Genetic information listed in a largely unknown, open-source genetic database called GEDmatch proved instrumental in cracking the case, the Mercury News reports. Investigators used genetic databases to find relatives who matched genetic material taken from an old crime scene, the Sacramento Bee reports. They then cross-referenced family data from GEDmatch, potentially bolstered by that from other databases, with evidence gathered by investigators, eventually pinpointing and arresting a suspect: 72-year-old former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo. Investigators were able to use GEDmatch, which says it has between 900,000 and a million users, so easily because — unlike with commercial companies such as 23andMe, which in comparison boasts more than 5 million users — individuals upload and share their information for free, making it accessible to law enforcement, researchers and private citizens alike. Nonetheless, the case has thrust the issue of genetic privacy into the spotlight, particularly as direct-to-consumer tests become both increasingly popular and increasingly extensive in their insights. Millions of Americans have spit into tubes and pricked their fingers and swabbed thei...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Genetics healthytime onetime Source Type: news