One of the biggest home DNA-testing companies seems to have bowed to a backlash over its decision to allow the FBI access to its database,聽by announcing聽a new way for聽customers to stop聽law-enforcement agencies accessing聽their data.
贵补尘颈濒测罢谤别别顿狈础听听飞丑别苍听聽that the company had chosen to cooperate with the FBI without consulting customers.
Initially, the only way for individuals to deny the FBI access was to聽, depriving themselves of a tool that has become vital for many genealogists.
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But on 12 March,聽贵补尘颈濒测罢谤别别顿狈础听told customers that they could now retain the matching service but end access by law-enforcement agencies.
鈥淯sers now have the ability to opt out of matching with DNA relatives whose accounts are flagged as being created to identify the remains of a deceased individual or a perpetrator of a homicide or sexual assault, also referred to as Law Enforcement Matching (LEM),鈥� the company said in an email outlining changes to its terms and conditions for users.
Law-enforcement agencies will now have to register under a special process to access the company鈥檚 matching service,聽贵补尘颈濒测罢谤别别顿狈础听said.
Solving crimes
The combination of genetic data from home DNA-testing kits and family tree databases has allowed individuals to find relatives by matching聽DNA, but聽has also opened a new way for police to solve crimes. Police used the technique last year to identify the man thought to be behind聽a series of murders in California during the 1970s.
贵补尘颈濒测罢谤别别顿狈础听has made a selling point of its strong stance on privacy. Chief executive聽Bennett Greenspan聽聽in January that he wanted to create a framework that can 鈥渉elp prevent violent crimes and ensure the privacy of customers鈥�.
Many people, especially in the US, can now be found via genetic genealogy searches, says Debbie Kennett at University College London, who is also a customer of the firm.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the lack of regulation and oversight I鈥檓 concerned about it,鈥� says Kennett. If the genetic data wasn鈥檛 held by private companies, but instead stored in a regulated, universal database, there would be more control and oversight over how it was used, she says. 鈥淎t the moment,聽there鈥檚 nothing between the data and the police, it鈥檚 the Wild West.鈥�
The changes to the company鈥檚 terms of service will see EU citizens automatically opted out of matching with law-enforcement agencies鈥� DNA samples, but US citizens will need to actively opt out.
鈥淧ersonally,聽I think it should be opt-in.聽But聽I can see the arguments for having it automatically opt in, because society does have an ethical obligation to solve crimes,鈥� says Kennett.
贵补尘颈濒测罢谤别别顿狈础听said it had also created a panel of genealogists to help advise it on genetic privacy in future.
