The police will seek DNA users of the services Ancestry.com and 23andMe Bashny.Net

Startups like Ancestry.com and 23andMe offer users to send in DNA samples for medical rapid tests and genealogical research. The service is very popular: both companies have over a million customers.

When startups only started about five years ago, private paranoids warned about the risks to privacy of citizens in connection with the creation of large DNA databases. Nobody listened, but in vain. Now the fears begin to take hold fully: it became known that the DNA bases of interest to police.

"The DNA of your relatives may be used against you," writes Wired magazine, mentioning the incident that happened earlier this year with Director Michael għasri (Michael Usry). He became a suspect in an unsolved murder case after police found a DNA sample in the database Ancestry.com. The sample was provided by the father of the film Director a few years ago.

 



In the end, the situation was resolved successfully: għasri was found innocent, but the electronic frontier Foundation calls this story an example of what can result when the biometric data of citizens from private databases fall into the hands of law enforcement.

Representatives of both companies Ancestry.com and 23andMe said they provided the police and the FBI biometric information from users, if you get the appropriate judicial inquiry. The company 23andMe also said that she received several inquiries directly from the police and the FBI, but "successfully resisted them."

23andMe plans to soon begin publishing reports with information about the number of queries from the authorities on the issue of personal information, for example, such reports published by Google, Twitter, Facebook and some other it companies. The firm also intends to notify users if they are interested in law enforcement.

According to lawyers, the requests for DNA samples by the police — a completely adequate and legitimate measure in the framework of the ongoing criminal investigation. But every user should be aware that by sending the DNA sample to a private company, it potentially substitutes not only himself but also their family, including future children.

Fortunately, Ancestry.com 23andMe and delete personal information from the site. Removal is performed within 30 days.published

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Source: geektimes.ru/post/264410/