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A little OT and most here probably already know, but genetic genealogy(GEDmatch basically) is starting to be used to solve rape and murder cases. Here's a rece

A little OT and most here probably already know, but genetic genealogy(GEDmatch basically) is starting to be used to solve rape and murder cases. Here's a recent murder case solved a couple weeks ago they announced just on friday that they used genetic genealogy: http://providencejournal.com/news/20180727/how-dna-and-tattoo-led-to-charges-in-cold-ri-murder-case http://providencejournal.com/news/20180727/how-dna-and-tatto... And here's the first instance that I know of of a non-fatal rape case where the technology was used. https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2018/07/28/79-year-old-woman-raped-assaulted-her-st-george-home/855583002/ https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2018/07/28/79-year-ol...

bayesian_horse 8y ago
It's a good way to work around privacy issues like offenders not wanting/bothering to have their DNA registered. That's one of the reasons I believe people tend to be a little too protective of their genetic information. For one thing we spread it around, constantly. For another, all our relatives have some or most of that information too.
- hugh4life 8y ago
  It's not really collection that's the big issue... the big issue is that the federal DNA database only stores a very small portion of the DNA so familial searches on it are only accurate up to 1st cousins. And there are privacy and disparate impact on minorities(everyone caught thus far with GEDMatch has been white IIRC) complaints with using the federal database for familial searches. With GED Match you can go much deeper(at least to 3rd cousins but IIRC potentially up to 5th) in the family tree than the federal DNA database would allow. There are about 1 million law enforcement personnel in the US which is about how many samples are in the GEDMatch database... a pretty powerful database could be created just from the samples from law enforcement personnel.

bayesian_horse 8y ago

It's a good way to work around privacy issues like offenders not wanting/bothering to have their DNA registered. That's one of the reasons I believe people tend to be a little too protective of their genetic information. For one thing we spread it around, constantly. For another, all our relatives have some or most of that information too.

hugh4life 8y ago
It's not really collection that's the big issue... the big issue is that the federal DNA database only stores a very small portion of the DNA so familial searches on it are only accurate up to 1st cousins. And there are privacy and disparate impact on minorities(everyone caught thus far with GEDMatch has been white IIRC) complaints with using the federal database for familial searches. With GED Match you can go much deeper(at least to 3rd cousins but IIRC potentially up to 5th) in the family tree than the federal DNA database would allow. There are about 1 million law enforcement personnel in the US which is about how many samples are in the GEDMatch database... a pretty powerful database could be created just from the samples from law enforcement personnel.