There are genealogy databases that are public and or cooperate with authorities. Perhaps I’m a privacy nihilist, but IMHO, the cat’s kind of out of the bag for a lot of this. If you didn’t submit your DNA to a genealogy DB, you probably have family members that did so could see if they were 30% Italian or something.
That's how they caught the golden state killer. I think it was his niece submitted a DNA sample and it popped up as related to the unknown sample they had.
I once read an expert on this and it seems they only need a very low amount of DNA samples (like 0.1% of the population) in the database to be able to narrow down any search to the sibling level.
And traditional detective work can then figure out which sibling, if there are multiple.
he didn't have a criminal record according to the article, but if DNA records existed for his parents, you could still identify someone as offspring with pretty high confidence based on that IIRC
Some organizations do mass DNA collection from kids to help identify them later in life.
The school sends out a notification that the parents can sign up to have their kid swabbed so their kid's tiny corpse can be identified. They don't word it like that, but that is the idea.
So he may have been swabbed as a kid and they referenced that.
These days, you can opt in having your child’s dna stored after birth, in case they go missing or a natural disaster or something. We did it, but we opted to keep it physically in our own possession. It’s a little vial.
Because it’s potentially indicative of a national database of everyone’s DNA, rather than just the criminal database, which would be (and perhaps is) a privacy nightmare
some large commercial dna testing companies share their databases with law enforcement, and additionally you really don't need a close match to start identifying someone, 5th cousin type thing etc. heres an good video on the issue.
It's not. Law enforcement can get a warrant on 23 & Me. Everyone turning over the DNA to random companies not required to comply with HIPAA is a terrible idea.
Like, they have an excuse for taking the samples that seems valid. Except I don't think they're actually testing them. And there's no reason to keep after testing.
Now, I dont think it's for a secret DNA database, I think it's normal red state bullshit.
Just pointing out in some states the take and keep blood samples from every birth
Privacy minded people don’t like the idea of easily accessible geology databases. This was a good use of that technology, but people worry about that technology be used for evil. Health insurance companies reflagging you, or much worse.
They could easily get samples from family members to confirm. I’m sure one or both of his parents were in discussions with the FBI shortly after this all went down
Yeah this seems obvious to me. “Can we swab your cheek to confirm if this is your son?” What parent wouldn’t want to know if their kid was dead or alive?
I didn't realize how sketchy that all was. The form mentions genetic testing for conditions, but that was just like 2 of the spots. They did like 6 to a tiny newborn. I'd recommend other parents to object.
And I'm going to submit the destruction forms for my kids and myself.