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Investigators are broadening their DNA searches beyond government databases and demanding genetic information from companies that do ancestry research for their customers.
Two major companies that research family lineage for fees around $200 say that over the last two years, they have received law enforcement demands for genetic information stored in their DNA databases.
Ancestry.com and competitor 23andMe report a total of five requests from law agencies for the genetic material of six individuals in their growing databases of hundreds of thousands. Ancestry.com turned over one person’s data for an investigation into the murder and rape of an 18-year-old woman in Idaho Falls, Idaho. 23andMe has received four other court orders but persuaded investigators to withdraw the requests.
The companies say law enforcement demands for genetic information are rare.
But privacy advocates and experts are concerned that genetic information turned over for medical, family history research or other highly personal reasons could be misused by investigators— and that the few known cases could be the start of a trend.
“There will be more requests as time goes on and the technology evolves,” said New York University law professor Erin Murphy, author of “Inside The Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA.”
Read full, original post: Law enforcement investigators seek out private DNA databases
