Recently the case of the Golden Gate Killer which has been arrested many years later thanks to the availability of a genetic and genealogy website has shown that our genetic data is not quite safe.
As explained in this paper ‘Here’s the ‘open-source’ genealogy DNA website that helped crack the Golden State Killer case‘, a relative of the suspect underwent a genetic mapping to connect genealogically. Thanks to this public database of thousands of voluntarily uploaded profiles, connections were made to the suspect’s family. It seems that in the US at least there is a trend to get one’s DNA mapped.
“The case sheds light on a little known fact: Even if we’ve never spit into a test tube, some of our genetic information may be public — and accessible to law enforcement. That’s because whenever one of our relatives — even distant, distant kin — submits their DNA to a public site hoping to find far-flung relations, some of our data is shared as well.”
I don’t think genetic data protection is enforced through personal data protection laws at this moment, and this issue of closeness of family members’ DNA is also an issue as most of our information is detained by someone else! We may need to regulate the access to our genetic data a bit closer quite soon. Of course, the data should remain accessible by law enforcement through strict supervision by judicial powers, but its availability should be strictly limited.
